The annual price adjustment request filed by the U.S. Postal Service has been approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission. The new rates will go into effect on January 27, 2019. This will of course negatively impact all our clients’ budgets.

We are currently updating our USPS rate charts with first-class, Marketing Mail letter and flats rates for both nonprofit and commercial mailers and we’ll post them on the site as soon as they are complete.

In addition we are updating our 2019 commingle rates for our clients to offer them the best possible guaranteed rate for their campaigns.

If you have any questions or would like to explore using our commingling and drop ship services to contain your postal costs, please call us at 443-539-2640.

Our clients are preparing budgets for 2019 and the question of what’s going to happen with postage rates is always a huge consideration.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS)  has filed its annual price adjustment request with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC). The rate increases need to be approved by the PRC before the implementation date, which this year is January 27, 2019.

Rate increase requests cannot exceed the Consumer Price Index (CPI). The USPS has requested increases which overall meet the guidelines however several segments, if approved will realize greater changes such as:

• First Class postage will go from 50 cents to 55 cents – a ten percent increase! This increase is mitigated by a reduction in the rates for additional ounces, but even so, for direct marketers this increase is a double-whammy, as inbound mail is affected as well.
• If the rate requests are approved, nonprofit rates will see a 4.8 to 5.5 percent increase at the Destination Sectional Center Facility (DSCF), according to initial calculations from Steve Kearney of the Association of Nonprofit Mailers. Since high-volume mailers and comminglers strive to qualify their mail down to the DSCF level for maximum savings, this increase has a big impact on the direct response community.

Nonprofits are also concerned about the limitations potentially being placed on marketing mail which would limit the mailing to only paper therefore excluding any upfront premium offering such as labels, ornaments, stickers, calendars, etc. We are monitoring this situation as well. As of late, the USPS seems to be backing off this proposed change.

We understand the importance of postage in our clients’ budgets and what a large portion of a project’s cost it impacts. We will continue to monitor and update you as changes and/or approvals happen. In the meantime, your postal experts at MailSmart Logistics are here, ready to help you attain the absolute best postage rates possible. Put our volume discounts to work for you. Please let us know if we can answer any questions or help in anyway.

Attention Nonprofit Mailers:

A new rule proposed by the Postal Service poses a huge threat to nonprofit postal budgets.

The proposal eliminates all merchandise and goods from USPS Marketing Mail, which moving forward would be limited to paper-based, printed matter only.

The biggest impact would be on upfront premium mailings containing non-paper items like tote bags, pens, hats, etc. Plastic membership cards, coins, and other non-paper techniques would also be barred from nonprofit rates. These mailings would need to shift to a more expensive product like Priority Mail or Parcel Select to be mailed.

You can review the full description of the proposed rule here: USPS Marketing Mail Content Standards

Please take action by submitting letters in opposition within the 60 day comment period, which has now officially started, and ends on October 22, 2018. Instructions for mailing and e-mailing written comments are included in the proposed rule document in the above link.

These advocacy actions are proven to have a big impact on USPS decisions and plans! So please take action now.

Stay in touch with MailSmart Logistics and the Alliance for Nonprofit Mailers for updates in the days ahead, as this is a developing situation. Next week we will share a sample letter that you can customize for your organization and submit during the official comment period.

If you’re going to the 2018 Chicago Nonprofit Conference, be sure to attend “’Where’s the Mail?’ Mission Critical Production Advice” on Tuesday, August 28 at 11:45am.  Our very own Debbie Sylvester along with Shannon Murphy of CCAH, Kim Postulart of Alzheimer’s Association and Lauren Merrill of Catholic Relief Services will be addressing this proposed rule and what you and your organization can do to stop it from being implemented.

MailSmart Logistics will continue to provide updates on this critical issue, but if you have any specific questions, please contact us at any time.

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.