Over 44 Million Americans Move Every Year

It can take only a few months for 5% of a mailing list to become undeliverable. The Postal Service handles nearly 10 billion pieces of undeliverable-as-addressed (UAA) mail at a cost of close to $2 billion every year. These revised standards will save both the Post Office and the Mailer money by removing incorrectly addressed pieces from mailing lists,.

Effective November 23 or this year, the Postal Service’s new rule

• Increases the minimum frequency of Move Update processing from 185 calendar days to 95 days prior to the date of mailing.
• Extends the Move Update requirement to include all Standard Mail (letters, flats, parcels and not-flat-machinables), as well as automation-rate and presort-rate First-Class Mail.

Only 5 Methods Meet the Move Update Standard:

1. The easiest and least expensive method for most mailers: NCOALink processing. Click here to find out how NCOA works.
2. A traditional method is the use of an appropriate on-piece ancillary service endorsement, such as Address Service Requested, Return Service Requested or Change Service Requested. Mailers using method 2, on-piece ancillary service endorsements, must incorporate the address changes received prior to subsequent mailings, and must mail to your address file with an endorsement at a minimum every 95 days (beginning Nov 23). Click here to find out more about them and what they cost.

The following three methods are not often used due to the technical requirements and the expense for set up.

1. FASTforward MLOCR processing (letter mail only).
2. OneCode ACS (Address Change Service) in conjunction with an Intelligent Mail barcode and business entity ID.
3. Address Change Service used with an ACS participant code and an appropriate on-piece ancillary service endorsement.

If a list used in a mailing at one class of mail is updated with an approved method, the same list may be used during the following 95 days in another mailing as well as another class of mail.

A mailing with a generic name such as, "……or Current Resident," or a saturation type mailing addressed to "Occupant" or "Postal Customer" are NOT subject to the Move Update standards. Contact Mailrite for further information.