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On February
29th, Postmaster General, John
E. Potter addressed a number of
mailer concerns about the
Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB)
in response to the unusually
high number of comments
submitted regarding the January
7th notice of proposed
rulemaking in The Federal
Register.
In a letter
that appeared as a DMM Advisory,
Mr. Potter thanked all that
provided feedback to the United
States Postal Service, and
commented on a number of
implementation concerns brought
up by the industry. Although
the final proposed rules will
not appear in the Federal
Register until later this month,
Mr. Potter wanted to address a
number of issues that were
common among the responders.
Some of the proposed changes
are:
-
Proposing
a May, 2009 implementation
of the IMB, concurrent with
the annual price changes.
-
Separate
pricing for the basic and
full-service option IMB in
May, 2009.
-
Postnet
Barcodes will remain
eligible for automation
discounts until May, 2010.
He hinted that there may be
a price difference between
the Postnet Barcode and the
IMB barcode in May, 2009.
-
The USPS
will propose new options for
mail owner identification (MID’s)
-
On the
Full-Service option IMB, the
USPS will eliminate the
requirement for green
colored bars on the
container labels. These
bars were to identify the
proper barcode for USPS
employees to scan.
Although not
all comments were addressed, it
is a good start to a dialogue
with the mailing industry. The
IMB is a key element to the USPS’
future, as required in the
Postal Accountability an
Enhancement Act of 2006 (PAEA).
Implementation of the IMB will
allow the Postal Service to
track mail through their system,
giving them end-to-end
visibility. The IMB will help
the Postal Service improve the
quality of mail service
throughout their system.
Want to know more?
Give
us a call.
Jan Merchantz
jmerchantz@superiormailing.com
Content Expert |
