USPS Unveils Revised Addressing Standards
The U.S. Postal Service has formally adopted revised addressing requirements for standard, periodical, media and library mail and bound printed matter sent at automation, presorted, or carrier route prices.
They take effect March 29, 2009.
The USPS said it altered these standards after receiving detailed comments from 24 mailers, seven associations, four presort bureaus, three large printers, and two consultants. The USPS first proposed them last October.
Under these new standards, the USPS requires that mailers place the delivery address in the upper portion of all the affected pieces.
Mailers may place the address parallel or perpendicular to the top edge, but not upside down relative to the top edge. The new standards define “upper portion” as the top half of a mail piece, according to the USPS.
These addresses must also use a minimum of 8-point type. If the mail piece bears a Postnet or Intelligent Mail barcode with a delivery point routing code, they must be printed in a minimum of 6-point type in all capital letters, continued the USPS.
In addition, for all automation price pieces, the characters in the address must not overlap, the address lines must not touch or overlap, and each address element may be separated by no
more than five blank character spaces, according to the USPS.
The postal service said these changes were necessary because the USPS wants to increase the number of flat (catalog-size) pieces it can process with its Flats Sequencing System (FSS), automated sorting equipment. These changes will speed up delivery times, noted the USPS.
Currently, the USPS only sorts flat-size mail mechanically to the 9-digit ZIP Code or carrier level and then letter carriers must manually sort them into proper delivery order.
