Employee Focus
 
 

                                                                                                               

USPS STANDARD MAIL
NEW ADDRESS REQUIREMENTS

Effective March 29th, 2009, the U.S. Postal Service changed the way Standard Flat mail is processed. Standard Flats such as large envelopes, catalogs and publications fall into this designation. The new rules must be followed in order to continue to receive postal discounts.

The USPS ordered and installed new flat sorting equipment. The changes they have implemented requiring clear, legible addresses ensure accurate sorting, redirection and delivery; enable high-speed processing; and minimize service delays. Consistent address placement is needed to take advantage of new flats processing technology and will significantly increase efficiency, which helps keep postage costs affordable.

The majority of the changes affect how UH Postal Services must determine to address our customer�s flat size pieces such as font type (sans-serif) and font size (minimum 8-pt.). What does affect the departments and colleges at the University of Houston is the orientation of your flat size envelopes\catalogs in regards to the placement of the return address, the recipient address and the indicia.

This means:

    � The return address, the recipient address and the postage and/or indicia must all be in the top half of the mail piece.

    � The orientation of the flat size envelope has changed from landscape to portrait.

We have two examples to show you what the changes look like. As departments are ordering flat envelopes UH Printing is automatically changing the orientation of the return address and indicia. We have also contacted many departments who have annual or bi-annual publications such as the UH Magazine, Parameters or the President�s Report to instruct them on the new requirements before they begin designing their next publication.

The first example is the UH Magazine and the second example shows a flat size envelope. The recipient �s address will appear in the upper half of the envelope and magazine. The bound edge of a publication must be on the right. This would necessitate having the address space on the back of the mail piece (like the UH Mag).

Please contact UH Postal Services if you have questions about the new changes.



EXAMPLE 1


EXAMPLE 2