Move Update non-compliance to cost mailers more in 2010

USPS pushes back Intelligent Mail barcode implementation

The US Postal Service has announced it will begin attaching additional postage charges to any commercial Standard Mail that does not meet its acceptance rate for Move Update standards in January 2010.

Move Update compliance has been mandatory for commercial mail since November 23, 2008. This decision requires that mailers select one of the postal-approved methods to regularly update mailing list addresses against customer-filed change-of-address notifications in order to reduce the forwarding or return-to-sender charges.

Under the new decision, mailers for which more than 30% of addresses fail an update check will be assessed for additional fees. This assessment will apply to a portion of the mailing based on the percentage by which the measured error rate exceeds the 30% tolerance. Mailers will have the option to pay the additional postage or withdraw the mailing.