Customer Support Ruling

Revenue Deficiencies on Inserts to Periodicals Publications
REVISED May 2006

PS-313 (707.3.4.2)

This Customer Support Ruling discusses the assessment of postage charges for ineligible enclosures in Periodicals publications when the material is detected after acceptance.

Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) 707.3.4.2 states, in part, that material containing any one of the following printed items, or that is referred to in a component of the Periodicals mailpiece by the use of these items, is ineligible to be mailed at Periodicals rates:

a.       A separate price or subscription instructions

b.       The word “catalog”

c.       A First-Class Mail or Standard mail Permit Imprint

d.       An ISBN, ISSN, or USPS number different from the host

A publisher was assessed a revenue deficiency for a component of a publication that was ineligible to be mailed at the Periodicals rates under DMM 707.3.4.2b: specifically, the word “catalog” was used to describe the component. The initial ruling on this mailpiece erroneously assessed additional postage for the piece at the Ride-Along rate, rather than at the applicable Standard Mail rate.

The Ride-Along rate was developed in cooperation with the industry to encourage new mail volume and to benefit publishers. The Ride-Along rate is applicable when mail is prepared in accordance with prescribed requirements in DMM 707.15 and the rate is claimed at the time of mailing. It was never intended to be used, nor is it the applicable rate to be charged, for “content” violations, such as the one described above, that result in a revenue deficiency assessment. When such discrepancies are found after acceptance, any resulting revenue deficiency must be assessed at the applicable Standard Mail or Package Services rate.

(Signed)
Sherry Suggs
Manager
Mailing Standards
United States Postal Service
Washington DC 20260-3436