Keynote speaker Scott Jones, manager of Business Mail Entry Unit
of the USPS® in Santa Ana, Calif., led industry leaders
through the most current information available on Move Update
standards at a Southern California Postal Community Council (PCC)
conference in Anaheim, Calif. He began the presentation by reminding
mailers that more than 45 million Americans move every year and the
importance of performing Move Update processing to reduce the number
of mailpieces that are forwarded or returned.
The Postal Service™ delivers to 149 million addresses and adds more
than 1.8 million new delivery points each year.
Throughout the presentation, Jones covered six ways a mailer can
perform a Move Update. The four pre-approved methods include the use
of ancillary service endorsements, the ACS™ and OneCode ACS™
programs, NCOALink®, and the use of the FASTforward® Multiline
Optical Character Reader. The two methods that require separate
approval include the legal restraint method and the 99 percent
accuracy method.
Legal Restraint Method
The legal restraint method is for mailers who claim they are
restricted from incorporating Postal Service COA information into
their mailing lists without permission from the addressees, and may
request approval from the Postal Service’s National Customer Support
Center (NCSC).
The mailer’s request must be accompanied by a citation and a copy of
the applicable legal statute or regulations. Federal, state, and
local government entities must request approval and submit citation.
Being provided a Legal Restraint authorization does not eliminate
the requirement for the mailer to use a Move Update program to
identify their moving customers.
To be eligible for the Legal Restraint alternative, the mailer must
use one of the authorized Postal Service programs: NCOALink, ACS,
FASTforward, or ancillary service endorsements, to identify a
customer’s COA. The mailer must have used one of the authorized
programs within 95 days of the mailing.
Once the mailer learns of a customer’s COA, they have 30 days to
contact the customer and request that the customer provide an
address correction notice so the mailer can update the address list.
The mailer can use any method they prefer to contact the customer:
telephone, mail, email, etc.
The mailer must be able to show that they made the effort to contact
the customer to request that the customer update their address
record. This documentation should include the method and date that
each step was performed. The documentations should be retained by
the mailer for one year and provided to the Postal Service if
requested.
99 Percent Accuracy Method
The 99 percent accuracy method also requires separate Postal Service
approval. Mailers who believe their mailing lists are already
accurate because their customers diligently notify them of address
changes, may meet their Move Update requirements by getting approval
from the NCSC and following a four step validation process.
The mailer must submit their address list to the NCSC for
evaluation. If the evaluation shows that less than 1 percent of the
addresses have COA orders, the mailer is given a written approval
for the 99 percent accuracy method. The Postal Service will
periodically ask the mailer to resubmit their list for evaluation to
determine if the list is being kept up to date.
If the mailing list is in compliance after the third year, the
mailer will be permitted to mail based on the validation process for
the next four years. However, at the end of each four year cycle,
the mailer must show that the mailing complies with current
standards. If the list doesn’t meet compliance with current
standards, it will have to be revalidated using the initial
verification process.
Alternative Address Formats
Mailpieces that use an alternative address format (such as “John
Doe,” “Current Resident,” “Occupant,” or “Postal Customer”) are not
required to meet the Move Update requirement. This is because the
Postal Service does not forward mailpieces that have an alternative
address format.
Move Update Acceptance and Verification
Move Update verification is being performed at all sites that use
MERLIN® for performance of verification. The threshold will consist
of two factors: The first factor is that the verification must
detect more than five pieces that have a COA on file and that were
not updated by the mailer. The second factor is that the
verification results percentage must be below 70 percent. This
verification result is determined by dividing the number of pieces
detected with a COA on file that the mailer did not update by the
total number of pieces with a COA on file. If the mailing is
determined to fail the verification, a 7 cent per piece charge will
be assessed.
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The Importance of Move Update Processing
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| Mailing total pieces |
100,000 |
| Move Update score |
60% |
| Percent application |
70% threshold – 60% = 10% |
| Pieces for additional postage |
10% x 100K = 10,000 |
| Calculation |
.07 x 10,000 = $700.00 |
Source: For more information on the Move Update process, mailers can visit the Postal Service on the web at
www.usps.com/ncsc/services or ribbs.usps.gov.
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