The U.S. Postal Service is proposing a change the eligibility requirements for automatable catalogs, periodicals, bound printed matter and other polywrapped flats. The changes could result in an increase in size for automatable flats, as well as savings for catalogs and other flat mailers.
The changes include increasing the maximum weight of an automatable flat measuring 12-by-15 inches and three quarters of an inch thick from 16 ounces to 20 ounces. They also call for requiring polywrapped flats to carry the endorsement “USPS AFSM APPROVED POLY” on the address side of the mail piece.
The endorsement can be either on the flat itself or on the polywrap, “preferably below the postage area or in another prominently visible location on the outside of the mail piece,” according to postal officials.
The polywrap endorsement “will allow more bound printed matter pieces, which primarily weigh 16 ounces or more to qualify as flats,” postal officials said.
Noting that minimum size of an automatable flat (5-by-6 inches and up to 0.009 inches thick) remains unchanged, postal officials said that catalogs and other flat mail pieces, including some newspapers and magazines, meeting the proposed eligibility requirements could qualify for a new 3 cent per piece discount.
The discount will become available on June 30 when a rate increase averaging 7.7% goes into effect.
The proposed changes, published in Wednesday’s Federal Register, were prompted by the installation of the new Automated Flat Sorting Machine (AFSM) 100, which, according to postal officials is capable of processing up to 17,000 flats an hour.
According to postal officials the new machines will help reduce costs “by moving flats processing from the labor intensive manual/mechanical environment to a more efficient automated mode.” Currently some catalogs and other flat pieces weighing just over 16 ounces must be sorted by hand.
Although postal officials expect installation of the new machines to be completed by the end of the month, they said the older Flat Sorting Machine (FSM) 881, which has been used for years, would slowly be phased out of service.
