Customer Support Ruling

Delivery Stop Information Updates for Simplified Address Periodicals, Standard Mail and Bound Printed Matter Carrier Route Mailings
April 2001

PS-300 (602.3.2)

This Customer Support Ruling discusses the delivery stop information update requirements for Periodicals, Standard Mail, and Bound Printed Matter (BPM) carrier route/Enhanced Carrier Route rate mailings using the simplified address format.

Postal standards provide that carrier route information must be updated within 90 days before the mailing date for all Periodicals, Standard Mail, and BPM carrier route/Enhanced Carrier Route rate mail.  Walk-sequence rate pieces prepared with a simplified address must be based on delivery stop information obtained within 90 days before the mailing date, either from the Delivery Statistics File or from the postmaster of the destination office.

The standards for address matching and coding for all carrier route mail coded by any AIS product (i.e., the Delivery Statistics File) are in DMM 708.3.3.1.  Under these standards, all carrier route rate mailings bearing addresses coded by any AIS product must be coded with current CASS-certified software and the current USPS database.  A database is considered “current” beginning with its release (this date may be earlier than the official “File Release” date of the product) through the date identified in DMM 708.3.3.1 as the “Last Permissible Use” date.  Accordingly, an AIS product, such as the Delivery Statistics File, is current and may be used for approximately 105 days to code or match addresses.  Mailings must then be made within 90 days from the date when coding/matching occurs.  When the simplified address format is used, the date of coding is often the date when the address labels are actually created (either hard copy or electronically) and mailings must be made within 90 days from the date when the labels are created.

Mailers may contact the postmaster at the destination office to obtain the most current delivery stop information.  The date(s) the information was obtained from the postmaster must be included in the database maintained by the list processor (file date) and the process used to obtain the data should be documented.  When this process is used, the Postal Service considers the date the information is obtained from the postmaster to be equivalent to the “File Release” date of an AIS product.  The data is considered to be “current” for 105 days from this date (the “Last Permissible Use” date”).   Accordingly, the mailer may create labels any time during the 105-day period when the data is “current” and mailings must then be made within 90 days of the date when the labels were created.  The date that the labels were created is used to report information on PS Form 3553 in block B2 (date list processed).

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