Common questions included on weekly mailing updates If you can't find an answer you are looking for, contact Pat Geurin for further assistance.
If we change Banner to a snowbird's southern address and the alum chooses not to place a change of address at the Post Office because they do not want all their mail to follow them, will running the National Change Of Address against Banner change the address back to the alum’s northern home address?
No. The alum will register for mail at his southern location. The Post Office will see this location as a good address and NCOA will not make a change when it is run against Banner or any of our address files containing this address. It is possible for someone to have more than one address connected to their name. The alum's mail addressed to his northern home will be delivered to his northern home and the mail addressed to his southern home will be delivered to his southern home.
We have a holiday coming that most of us forget about.
Columbus Day will be here in two weeks. The USPS does not deliver mail on this day. When there is a backup of mail from a holiday, it sometimes takes more than one day for the Post Office to catch up. Please consider how this may affect the timeline of your upcoming mailings.
Why is the Intelligent Mail Barcode so important?
The main reason is because this barcode will be a "to and from" barcode. The Intelligent barcode (required by next spring to get a full discount) will include our assigned mailer number besides the zip code of the recipient. The Post Office plans to audit mailings up to two years after the mailing has dropped, looking for the percentage of bad addresses for fining purposes.
Enough with the acronyms!
The General Postmaster has requested that IMB not be used in any more information pages or in workshops with postal customers. IMB stands for Intelligent Mail Barcode. This topic seems to be much too important for another confusing acronym. Discounts for using the Intelligent Barcode will begin this coming spring.
Latest on mailing to a Post Office box.
Unless a person tells us to mail everything to their Post Office box, we should use both addresses, PO box and street address. The Post Office prefers one destination, but if you are not sure, it's safest to use both. Some people choose to sort their mail and have some mail delivered to their house and some mail to their PO box, so both address lines could be valid. The PO box should be closest to the city and state incase this is the only address.
What is a PS 6014 form?
This form involves the postal changes scheduled to take place on November 23rd. First class and second class large mailings will be required to have addresses updated within 95 days of the drop of every mailing or pay a fine. The fine is the difference between what you paid and regular first class mail. If you paid fourteen cents for 20,000 pieces, your fine could be $5,600. (.42 - .14 x 20,000) And the Post Office has up to two years to audit your mailings.
Form PS 6014 will be used by mail houses asking customers to declare their database receives routine address updating or needs the mail house to perform an update for them. But, mail houses have made it clear that if your mailing happens to be dropped without an address update, the mail house is not responsible for your fine.
What did I pay last year?
If you have a question on expenses from past years, the mailing spreadsheets may help. From the first page of the Advancement Services website, go down to University Advancement Staff Resource Page and click. Then go down to Mailing Spreadsheet and click on a fiscal year. You will need to sign in and save the chart to your desktop. There is a filter on each column. Click on the column you wish to filter. Click the Select All and the check marks will go away. Check on what you want to see and then click OK. To undo your filter, click the top of the column you have filtered and check Select All and OK. (Filtering with Office 2003 and Office 2007 may vary slightly)
Labor Day is coming...
Remember to add a couple days to your mailing time around Labor Day. It usually takes an extra day for the Post Office to catch up from the backlog after a holiday.
Are postal rules as important when I mail with a stamp?
Yes. Large mailings are pre-barcoded. Your daily mail must go through the process of being barcoded. If your mailing address is misinterpreted by the barcoding machine it could be lost for days, even weeks. If the barcoding machine is completely confused, your mail is kicked out as a problem and sent to the Remote Encoding Site (Mexico) and is processed by hand, adding time to your delivery. If you must address by hand, print and avoid punctuation.
If I use a stamp, doesn't the Post Office keep trying to deliver my letter until the person it belongs to is found?
No. Forwarding is provided for one year from the time a new address is registered at the Post Office. The mail will then be returned to the sender for the next six months. After 18 months of the address change (not the sending of the letter), the Post Office is no longer responsible for your letter. It is possible to get an older letter delivered or returned, but it is not a guaranteed service.
USPS Contract pricing?
The Post Office will be introducing contract pricing in the coming months. This is part of an effort to improve service with predictable, affordable pricing. (Rumor has it this may involve tracking mailings with an intelligent barcode through a mail house)
Economic Slowdown at USPS...
The Post Office has reported another quarter with a 3 percent drop in mail compared to last year. This is the largest decline in mail since 2002, totally 51 billion pieces of mail per quarter. Expenses this quarter reflect a slight increase, largely due to fuel costs.
Why is some of our daily metered mail returned so quickly?
Our daily metered mail is sent from the campus mailroom to a company in West Chester called PSI. This company presorts our daily mail with mail from around the area to get a discount on postage. But before it is blended, our mail is run through software called Fastforward. This software (owned and leased from USPS) forwards, returns, or rejects bad addresses before reaching the postal system.
*Remember to close encumbrances to old mailings. Leftover funds are usually due to a change in count after the bid to vendors. Encumbrances left unclosed are usually carried over into your new fiscal year. (Just send Rita Dill in Purchasing an email)
No mail delivery on the Fourth of July. Have a safe holiday!
The Post Office is going green . . .
The USPS is making an effort to become eco-friendly. Recycled paper and inks that are less harmful to the environment are being used. Postmaster General Potter encouraged mailers to embrace green practices at the National Postal Forum in Anaheim, California.
Do you buy shipping supplies at the Post Office?
You may want to check the USPS online retail shop before buying personal shipping supplies. The Post Office is offering discounts for items bought online.
What happens if the postal scanning machine does not understand my hand written address on a piece of daily mail?
If your mail piece is scanned for a barcode and the machine is totally confused, the piece is kicked out as a problem and processed by hand. Many pieces are delivered to Mexico to be hand processed because of cheaper labor costs. If the confusion is small, like Lane looking like Cove to the scanner, the local Post Office of the zipcode is usually asked to determine the delivery point.
Expect upcoming changes on addressing large envelopes. . .
The Post Office has new machines for sorting and barcoding large envelopes (flats). This summer a request will be made to begin changing the way we address envelopes over 6-1/8" x 11-1/2" and less than 1/4" thick. USPS will ask we move the recipient address to the left hand top of the envelope, either horizonally or vertically. Samples will be coming . . .
"NEVER MAIL A SLIM JIM..."
Some people (not from Miami...hopefully) will fold a letter vertically,
tape or tab the long open end, and mail it as a self-mailer. This is called
a Slim Jim. They jam in the postal machines and are most times thrown
away. The Post Office has asked for this practice stop.
*Reminder* May 12th postal rates change. Be care sending RSVPs or any return mail with postage attached. If the receiver returns this mail after next Monday, there may not be enough postage. Replace a returning postcard stamp with a forever stamp. Postcard and regular first class stamps go up a penny, changing to .27 cents and .42 cents. (Your forever stamps will still qualify for first class mailing) Other changes include Express Mail switching to zone-based pricing and Parcel Return Service to weight based pricing.
What can I do to help in the delivery of my mail pieces?
Remember a mail piece is forwarded for only a year from the time a person
moves. Make sure you have an updated address. Print or type
clearly, avoid punctuation and fancy fonts, try to use postal abbreviations,
and keep your zipcode close to the state. If the zipcode is not
found within the first three spaces after the state, the barcode scanning
machine assumes there is no zipcode. If there is a street and post
office box, do not use both. Remember any comma can be interpreted
as a number. Remove words: the, of, at, also, &, in care
of, attention, etc., i.e., et al.
Here is a sample of what the Post Office would like to see:
Mildred Doe
Professional Engineer
Virginia Construction Corporation
12 E Business Ln Ste 209
Kryton VA 39188-0002
Will the Intelligent barcode guarantee us better delivery service?
Yes. Since the Post Office is requiring address files be updated
with a national address database at least every three months to receive
a discount on large mailings starting November 23rd, there should be less
discarded and forwarded mail. The Post Office records are scheduled
to be reported to Congress, so there is more incentive to get the mail
delivered promptly. Plus, we will have the ability to request tracking
on any of our large mailings.
How serious is the mail problem at the Post Office?
The Post Office spent over a billion dollars last year redirecting mail.
It is estimated that mailers of large mailings lost 10 billion dollars
from mail being thrown away from the Post Office. Last year alone
5.4 billion pieces of mail were never delivered. Congress has ordered
these statistics be cut in half by 2010.
When will we start using the Intelligent barcode?
The deadline has been moved from January 2009 to May 2009. And the
definition of deadline has been changed. We will receive
more of a discount if we use the Intelligent barcode
starting May 2009, but this barcode will not be required until May of
2010. As soon as Miami receives a mailer ID we can start using the
new barcode. The Intelligent barcode has been in use by several
companies since June of 2006.
Why is it important to start mailing with a new kind of barcode?
Homeland Security is behind the big push for the Intelligent barcode.
The government will have information available to them on who is mailing,
to whom, and when the mail is delivered. Congress is also concerned
with the waste of American dollars due to mail thrown away because of
improper addressing and design flaws. This barcode will alert Congress
on who is not following the new postal rules.
When in May is the postage going up?
May 12th. We are told to plan on a 1% postage increase in large
mailings. Stamps will be .42 cents up to one ounce and .59 cents
up to two ounces. Postcards will be .27 cents. There will
also be a new .62 cent stamp for square greeting cards.
How will the 'forever stamp' work when postage goes up this spring?
The 'forever stamp' is the stamp with the liberty bell, has no postage
amount printed on it,and reads first class forever. The stamps
you now have will still be good as first class stamps on letters after
the price of postage goes up. However, when you buy additional forever
stamps, you will pay the new price of 42 cents.
NEW EXPRESS MAIL CHARGE - Starting in March the Post Office will charge an extra $12.50 in addition to postage for all overnight deliveries made on a Sunday or Holiday. If you wish to wait until the next day, the extra $12.50 will be dropped.
Why don't we write Address Service Requested on all first
class mail?
The cost came down last spring for paper notification of an address correction
and it is now fifty cents each from seventy-five cents, but this is still
expensive. Our daily mail involving pledges and tax information
which have Address Service Requested on the envelope does not
have a large number of address corrections. We now have free address
file corrections from the campus mail room through NCOA (National Change
of Address) for large mailings and the cost of database updates has come
down to one-third of a cent per record. (this charge is for all records,
not just the records with a change) Address Service Requested
is a good service, but not economical for a large first class mailing.
Why do we get any first class mail back?
First class mail is forwarded to the customer for 12 months from the time
the customer submits their address change and returned to the sender with
the new address for another 6 months. The sender would not get the
address correction the first 12 months unless Address Service Requested
is on the envelope. So if the customer is sent a piece of mail with
their old address in the 13th month or longer of their moving, the mail
piece would be returned to the sender with the new address or no address
correction, stating the time had elapsed. The timing of our mailings
from the time the address change is submitted determines how it will be
treated. To avoid returned mail, the Post Office is forcing all
large mailers to update their databases at least every three months to
receive a discount starting next September. This action is forcing
the cost of updating a database to come down since all mailers will need
this service more often. We should see fewer returns in the near
future.
Something new on the Campus Postage & Services charge form
. . . .
On the receipt form we get from the campus mailroom you will see PSI
in the postage block. This stands for PSI
Group, Inc and this is the new company under contract to pick up the daily
mail from the campus mailroom to sort for a postage discount. They
also pick up the standard mail for further discounts. PSI is located on
International Blvd in the West Chester area.
You will also see NCOA in the bottom box. If you see a yes, this means your addresses have been run through the National Change of Address software for the latest address changes in the USPS national database.
New Priority Mail Large Flat-Rate Box - A new box is available at the Post Office for shipping at a fixed rate. The new box is 50% larger than the regular flat-rate box. The price is $12.95 to national addresses, with a special price of $10.95 to military addresses. It doesn't matter what this box weighs as long as your items fit in the box.
Will there be another increase in postage rates this spring?
The rumor is there will be a 3% postage rate increase in April or May.
An announcement should occur sometime in the next 60 days. The Post
Office can now change postage rates anytime there is a cost in living
increase.
Will our BREs be affected by the new Intelligent barcode?
Yes. We will need to apply the new barcode to our Business Reply
envelopes. The Post Office will accept both barcodes, the postnet
barcode we now use and the Intelligent barcode next January, but the cost
to apply the new barcode to existing BREs may be too costly. Please
let your stock of BREs run down and we hope to have the University mailing
ID by next fall to order new BRE envelopes with the required Intelligent
barcode.
Ever wonder if you have the right postal abbreviation? Here’s
a few if not:
Apartment - APT
Room - RM
Department - DEPT
Floor - FL
Lot - Lot
Pier - Pier
Building - BLDG
Space - SPC
Suite - STE
Unit - Unit
Intelligent Mail Barcode – every one out of 100 pieces of mail is now using the Intelligent barcode. This next generation barcode is used to track letters and flats and can be seen on both first class and standard mail. The use of this barcode is voluntary, but by 2009 the Intelligent barcode will be required to receive a mailing discount.
Are you mailing last minute Holiday mail this week?
To help move your mail through the postal system as fast and efficient
as possible remember to use NO COMMAS and NO PERIODS. If you
do not know the ZIP + 4 zipcode, it can easily be found on www.USPS.com
under Find a Zip Code.
Can addresses be changed on the Internet?
Yes. Anyone can change their address online by going to usps.com/realmove.
This program is called Internet Change of Address (ICOA) and real estate
agents are being asked to help the Postal Services to get the word out.
Shipping boxes over the holidays? Remember to use
at least 2 inch clear or brown tape. Do not use masking or cellophane
tape, cord, string or twine. Priority Mail tape is for identification
and not intended to seal packages. Print or type the delivery address
parallel to the longest side of the package.
Don’t leave off the AVE, BLVD or ST. If possible, place
a piece of clear tape over the delivery address.
Need to insure a package? Insurance can be purchased up to $5,000 at the Post Office. However, you cannot purchase more insurance than the worth of the package. Insurance over $200 must receive a signature upon delivery. And keep your receipt! The Post Office does not maintain records of insured items.
Trouble determining postage for odd size mail pieces?
Try this Web site:
http://postcalc.usps.gov
When will we begin using NCOA to update addresses?
We started with the Alumni Band Newsletter. It was run against the
National Change of Address last week and it worked very well. Our
goal is to receive the updated addresses from the campus mailroom after
the mailing goes out and download this information electronically into
our database. We also plan to update our entire database quarterly
with NCOA to correct addresses that may not be updated by a mailing.
Is the campus mailroom updating addresses?
Yes. Last week the campus mailroom began using the National Change
of Address program with six different departments on campus to update
addresses before a mailing is processed. For several years the mailroom
has used the CASS certification program changing our files to qualify
for automation discounts by removing punctuation, replacing words with
abbreviations and creating all capital letters. Now the delivery
addresses can be changed according to the latest information filed with
the Post Office. We hope to soon begin using this service.
What is the intelligent barcode?
The Post Office is in the process of changing the barcode we are accustom
to seeing. The present barcode has 45 bars. The new barcode
has 65 bars. The old barcode has bars that sit on a line and point
upward. The new barcode has bars that point upward and downward.
Besides address information, the new barcode can provide tracking, address
corrections, and customer ID information. This new barcode is now
being used on some first class and periodical mailings. Beginning
this fall the new barcode will also be seen on standard mailings.
By 2009, all automated mailings will be required to have the intelligent
barcode to receive a discount.
What is the new stamp rule?
Starting today July 30, 2007 the Post Office will no longer accept letters
or packages weighing more than 13 ounces mailed with stamps because of
security issues. The mail piece can be metered (with our campus
mailroom) or processed for postage by a postal employee. If mailed
with stamps, the 13 ounces or more mail piece will be returned to the
sender.
The Post Office doesn’t seem to be consistent with their rules.
How do we know how a mail piece will be handled?
The Post Office follows the rules for discounted mailings according
to the best interpretation available to them at the time. When it
comes to first class piece mail, the Post Office leans toward the fastest
and easiest procedure at the time. Maybe it will be barcoded, maybe
it won’t. Maybe the envelope will be hard to read and returned
to sender, maybe it won’t. Maybe a letter will be treated
as a flat with a big wavy cancellation mark, maybe it won’t.
It depends on the handler, the amount of mail at the time, and the available
machine. We know the Post Office is going through a transition,
so hopefully they will become more consistent in the future.
What does the term Priority Mail Open and Distribute mean?
We have used Priority Mail Drop Shipments when mailing for chapter events
to cities such as Cleveland . This is when we use standard mail,
but put these mail pieces in a first class mail bag. The bag is
air delivered to Cleveland in two days and then treated as standard mail
once the mail pieces are in Cleveland. This is less expensive than
a first class large mailing from Cincinnati and is faster than being placed
in a standard mail truck to travel across the state. This
action is now called Priority Mail Open and Distribute.
When sending a card and the envelope has extra postage needed printed
in the stamp area, how do we know how much postage is required?
The most common reason for extra postage is because the card is not shaped
to be machineable. When this happens the extra cost is 17
cents. The Post Office now has a 17 cent stamp for these
occasions. If the card is larger or heavier than normal, you will
need to check the Flats Rate (sometimes called the Large Envelope Rate)
postage chart in the mailroom. Check the chart if the card is heavier
than 3.5 ounces, wider than 6 inches or longer than 11 ½ inches.
What service do I use if I want to mail a letter overnight?
What are CREs and how do they differ from BREs?
How often should we update our address database?
Currently, we are required to update our records every 185 days to receive
postal discounts on large mailings. The USPS has proposed this be
changed to 95 days due to 44 million Americans changing their address
each year. Once this change has been announced in the Federal Register,
mailers will have 18 months to comply. Our off campus vendors normally
run our address files through USPS software to update addresses before
sending out our mailings. The campus mailroom is considering this
service beginning in the fall.
How much does the Post Office charge for address corrections?
On May 11 the cost of the photo postcard correction notification dropped
from .75 cents to .50 cents each. Electronic notification dropped
from .21 cents to .06 cents each. This is part of an incentive plan
to encourage customers to update their addresses more often. The
USPS goal is to reduce undeliverable mail by 50% in the next three years,
due to an alarming 1.72 billion pieces forwarded, returned or discarded
in 2006. This price break is also to off-set the extra cost of postage
starting August 1 when address certification will become less attainable
for discounts in large mailings, resulting in full first class postage
to mail the pieces with questionable addresses.
Do we get a lot of return mail through our Postage Due account?
No, not many. This year we have received address corrections for our first
class mail only through this account. A lot of this return mail is actually
a photo card of the mail piece being forwarded to a new address.
This happens for the first 12 months after a person moves. For the next
6 months (months 13-18) we receive the actual piece of mail with corrections.
We use electronic notification or database updates for most of our address
corrections.
How many postal accounts does our division own?
Four accounts, plus a loaned campus account. We have three accounts
with the Oxford Post Office; the Postage Due account which pays for address
corrections on returned mail, the Business Reply account which covers
all business reply envelopes using permit 5, and an Express Mail account
which we sometimes use during the holidays when the campus is closed.
In Troy, Michigan we have permit 53 for our Alumni Membership mailings.
And we have the campus Cincinnati permit 6271, which we monitor the balance
and pay the annual fees for first class and standard mailings.
Which is better to calculate postage, the paper chart from Neopost
or the online postage chart created by the Post Office sent to us in our
email?
The online chart created by the Post Office doesn’t take thickness
into account. If your letter is more than ¼ thick, it becomes
a large envelope (or flat). If your large envelope (or flat)
is more than ¾” thick, it becomes a package (or parcel).
The Neopost chart includes the thickness. Watch your padded envelopes.
In most cases, these will be considered a package and will cost more postage.
Until the Post Office simplifies their new rules, it is best to avoid
using stamps on any mail piece other than a normal business letter under
3.5 ounces. The campus mailroom or the Oxford Post Office should
calculate your postage on any larger item.
Is the postal meeting this Friday at the Heritage Room really that
important?
It depends. If you mail with stamps, send campus envelopes, or like
to contribute ideas for graphic designs or mailing procedures, you may
want to send someone from your area to attend. The new campus
mail stop codes for delivery of campus mail will be officially launched.
The new shape based rate pricing will be explained by Pitney Bowes.
And the Cincinnati Post Office will talk about designs that work and designs
that do not work.
Can we always use non-profit mail?
No. Mail with confidential information must be protected by the
rules of first class mail. First class mail is returned to the sender
if not deliverable. Standard mail is thrown away if the delivery
address is incorrect. The Post Office has the right to inspect any
piece of mail. If we compromise someone’s personal information by
sending a mailing non-profit that should have been mailed first class,
we will be fined a stiff penalty.
What is non-profit mail?
Non-profit mail is standard mail that qualifies for a discount.
Groups such as educational and religious institutions qualify. This
discount is not offered for first class mail, only standard mail.
The amount saved is usually six cents per piece compared to regular standard
mail. Compared to first class mail, we save .18 to .21 cents per
piece on a letter size automated mailing by using non-profit mail.
What is the Forever Stamp?
The Forever Stamp is a new .41 cent stamp which will be valid for any
one-ounce letter without extra postage when another postage increase occurs.
These stamps will be available in May. (Pres. Bush has signed a
new postal law, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which allows
price increases tied to the rate of inflation.)
How should we estimate postage for large mailings in the budget for
next year?
As a guide we are using .34 cents for first class presort mailings
and .18 cents for standard mailings. This is a four cents increase
from the postage averages we used for this year because of the upcoming
postage increase and the software change. The postage varies on each mailing
according to how far the pieces travel. This amount is for west
coast mailings and should average out to also cover your service charges.
What is metered mail?
Our outgoing mail that is sent to the campus mailroom to be charged against
an index account is metered mail. The meters contain USPS software
which can weigh each piece and determine the postage needed. The
mail is imprinted with the correct postage and cancelled by printing a
location and date on each piece. However, it is not barcoded before
going to the Post Office, so it still enters the OCR which scans and creates
a barcode.
If you have seen a returned letter from our metered mail in the last year,
you may have noticed .37 cents instead of .39 cents imprinted in the right
corner. United Mail has a courier pick up our campus mail each day
and organize the pieces into zipcode order. This allows the mail
to process more quickly and the Post Office gives a two cent discount.
United Mail takes one cent and Miami saves a one cent on each piece of
mail.
What is loop mail?
Basically, loop mail is mail that returns to the sender because of the
barcode. This happens with daily mail when the Post Office scans for an
address. Since all mail now requires a barcode, the OCR (Optical Character
Reader) will occasionally pick up the wrong address. The OCR reads
from the bottom to top, going left to right. If there is an address
on the left side of the mail piece in the read area this address can be
barcoded. Our large permit mailings are barcoded before entering
the postal system by USPS software against our address files, so looping
is not a problem. These pieces do not enter the OCR machines. Make sure
your return address is in the top one-third and be careful not to add
addresses to the face of your mail piece.
Is there a problem with putting a stamp over an indicia or precanceled
stamp if I want to mail a single piece?
The majority of the time this is not a problem, but there are a few things
to be aware. Daily mail is scanned for postage, canceled and barcoded.
Our large permit mailings do not go through this process so the design
rules are a little different. If there is a problem, the scanner will
toss the piece out of the fast moving track to be hand processed.
This is when a lot of the rips, tears, and dirty spots occur. Your piece
should be delivered, but it may not look as nice as you would prefer.
If you do not have clearance for the postal barcode at the bottom of your
piece, this could be a problem. You should have a clearance of
5/8” from the bottom and 4 ¼ inches from the right side to
the left for USPS barcoding. Your information could be covered with barcoding
tape or inked over and unreadable.
If you have information above the address area, it is best to place the
piece in an envelope. The postal scanner expects to find the postage
in the right corner and determines you haven't paid. Or if postage
is found, the scanner could pickup the return address or the address of
an event and create loop mail.
Some light weight postcards can travel as a permit mailing, but have a
hard time making it through the machines as a single piece. If in
doubt, it’s safer to place the mail piece in an envelope.
What is an indicia and canceled stamps?
An indicia is the printed box in the right hand corner of the address
area that says Non Profit Org. or Presorted First Class, U.S. Postage
Paid, Miami University. This tells the Post Office that the mail piece
is part of a large mailing and has been paid through a permit.
A pre-canceled stamp is a stamp with no postage amount on it. (.39
cents, .63 cents, etc.) This stamp represents any postage amount
recorded on the paperwork when the large mailing is dropped. Precanceled
stamps are bought at the Post Office, usually by our vendor who adds the
charge to the project invoice. Twenty-five cents for first class,
fifteen cents for first class postcards, ten cents for regular standard,
and five cents for non-profit standard. The actual postage of the
mail piece will be more and will be determined after the address file
is ran through the postal software. The difference in postage will
be charged against the permit.
**The campus mailroom is not equipped to apply precanceled stamps.
All mailings using precanceled stamps must be processed by an off campus
mail house.
What is a mailing permit and how does it work?
A mailing permit is an account to send large mailings in an organized
way at the least cost. It also produces clean, neat mail because there
is no canceling black ink stamped on the pieces. To obtain the largest
discount, pieces are barcoded and grouped by common digits within the
zip codes. The mail trays are then delivered to the closest sorting center
in the delivery areas.
Permit mailings must have the proper postal paperwork Deposits are made
in advance or a check to the permit account can accompany the mail drop.
The permit holder receives a monthly statement from the Post Office to
balance the permit account. The minimum pieces are 500 for first
class and 200 for standard mail. An indicia or precanceled stamps
must be used in place of a regular first class stamp. Every permit
is obtained with an application form, assigned a number, and charged an
annual fee.
Why are we being charged for postage with a transfer? Why not charge
our accounts directly?
Last spring we requested our own permit due to our growing number of off-campus
mailings. This would eliminate asking Purchasing to rush a postage check,
asking vendors to pay our postage for us, or asking vendors to provide
postal paperwork to validate postage charges on their invoices. We were
offered control of the existing Miami permit in Cincinnati for standard
non-profit mailings. We accepted and expanded this permit to include first
class mail. We have funds on the permit to cover anticipated mailings.
After the mailing has dropped and we have a charge, a transfer is created
to reimburse the account supplying deposits to the permit.
(**The campus mailroom accepts most mailngs up to 20,000 addresses and
charges our index accounts directly)
Why is the charge for a mailing sometimes different than the purchase
order and how does this affect procedure?
The amount on the purchase order is an estimated bid. When
the vendor sends the invoice to Purchasing and the amount is the same
price or slightly higher, the purchase order will automatically close.
If the invoice price is less, the difference will remain in encumbrance
in your index account. When this happens, you will need to email Purchasing
and tell them the vendor has been paid in full and the remaining amount
on the purchase order can be released. This amount will fall back into
your available balance. The most common reason for a charge difference
is a count change.