Beginning in April 2018, the USPS will begin using a new Move Update validation process.

What does this mean for mailers?

As you know, in order to mail to a list, the records must have gone through a data hygiene process called NCOA (National Change of Address) no longer than 95 days prior to your mail date. This helps the post office better manage their resources by reducing non-deliverable mail and the time-consuming task of forwarding and/or returning or trashing mail that cannot be delivered to the intended recipient. Move updates must be done for both Marketing Mail (formerly Standard) and First Class mail.

Nothing new there, so what’s changing?

Well, the USPS is changing the validation method used to determine compliance with Move Update –Mailpieces are scanned using Mail Processing Equipment and each mailing’s scores are maintained on a Mailer Scorecard. These results are aggregated across the calendar month based on the previous month’s mailings and measured against the established thresholds. Any mailpieces exceeding the threshold, which is an error rate of 0.5%, will be assessed a Move Update assessment fee.

What does this mean for you?

In order to keep your error score down, it’s important to keep up with your data hygiene protocols and process them through the NCOA hygiene in the prescribed time frame. Managing how your data is in your record will also help. Small things like ensuring your recipient name reads FIRST NAME/LAST NAME vs. LAST NAME/FIRST NAME will greatly decrease your error rate.

If you need assistance with any data hygiene, please reach out to us or our colleagues at MMI Direct.

We’d be happy to help, you can email your customer service rep or give us a call at 443-539-2640.