Undeliverable As Addressed (UAA) mail continues to be a large source of cost for the USPS. Nearly one quarter of the mail that goes through the USPS system contains some kind of error. Correcting these errors mail piece by mail piece costs the USPS nearly $2 billion per year.

One of the largest contributing factors to UAA mail is that a customer has moved without notifying your company. Therefore, one of the requirements to receive postage discounts from the USPS is for mailers to implement a Move Update solution. The requirement for several years has been that all presort / automation rate 1st class mail must be updated within 180 days before a mailing date with a USPS-approved method. There are several approved methods, for example, ForwardTrak and ForwardTrak.net from Pitney Bowes, which uses the USPS-approved method of interfacing to the USPS FASTforward system for a Mail List Correction (MLC).

Unfortunately what the USPS has found is that a significant number of mailers claiming they meet the Move Update requirement are actually not in compliance, and still receiving postage discounts. Obviously this is double jeopardy—the USPS loses on two counts—once with the discount and once with the cost to handle UAA mail.

As a result, the USPS Revenue Assurance Staff has started to monitor and investigate companies that claim the discount to ensure that they meet the Move Update Requirement.

The main monitoring factor will be 1st class discount mail being returned as “stale moves”. Stale moves represent moves that were in the USPS change of address data, and were never updated.

It is important to note that the USPS is not looking at auditing Move Update compliance as a revenue generating program. The main focus is for mailers to comply with the requirement and reduce undeliverable mail.

What will be required of a Mailer who is investigated?
The mailer will have to prove that they have an automated system for compliance. The mailer must show that they are using this system to update the addresses used in their mailings. Mailers claiming to use a manual process will be more closely analyzed.

How will the USPS determine who is in violation?
A determination of non-compliance will occur ONLY when a company cannot demonstrate that they had a procedure in place to comply with the Move Update Requirement.

What’s the Cost?
A mailer could be charged the difference between the rate they paid and the FULL rate on all pieces returned or even the entire mailing--as much as 9.5¢ per piece.

If the USPS determines that the mailer is “egregiously” remiss, the USPS may widen its investigation beyond just the one mailing and the mailer could be fined on all of their previous mailings.

What’s the solution?
ForwardTrak is a client/server system running on Windows® NT™. It integrates seamlessly within an existing environment. In fact, the interface can be set up so that processing is controlled from other platforms, including mainframes.

ForwardTrak interfaces to the USPS FASTforward® system -- a database history of all the permanent change of address (COA) cards filed within the last 13 months. Using ForwardTrak, business mailers can interface with this central COA database to quickly update your customer data with new address information before you print and send your mail.

ForwardTrak automatically generates an updated address file with moves, required USPS documentation and statistical reports. With its flexible updating capability, ForwardTrak can process move updates the way you need to. The system produces a file for investigating or database updating. So you don't have to automatically overwrite address information in your source database.

ForwardTrak ships with its own internal CASS engine, but it can also accept input from another external CASS application -- to cleanse addresses and assure they're correctly formatted before presenting them to the FASTforward® system. ForwardTrak even accepts input from mainframe CASS engines.

Because of USPS FASTforward (MLC) regulations, each owner of a mail list is assigned a unique 5 character ID. Monthly reports sent to the USPS documents all runs processed through the FASTforward system and are identified by the unique customer ID. These reports can be stored for 5 years. Therefore, assuming that the file has not been damaged, ForwardTrak has the ability to re-create these reports going back for five years.

For more information call 1.877.536.2736

 

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