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USPS NCOAlink Requirements Effective 11/23/2008
Upcoming November 23, 2008 USPS NCOALink Requirement for Standard Mail
All of Datamann’s mailing services customers who have employed NCOALink processing or other address forwarding tools are aware of the benefits these processes bring. The deliverability of the mail pieces in a specific catalog drop can be greatly improved, generating sales from customers who otherwise would not have been contacted. But even if a “forwarded” customer does not respond to that particular event, by posting his current address to your house file his or her correct address will be available for future promotions.
In its effort to reduce the costs associated with handling UAA (Undeliverable As Addressed) mail pieces, on November 23, 2008 the USPS will require addresses on standard mail pieces to have been updated by an authorized address forwarding process within the previous 95 days. The USPS will accomplish this their MERLIN system; if a threshold of mail pieces fail—that is, if they carry an old address rather than their current NCOALink forwarding address—the whole mailing will be penalized. These penalties are not minor, either, running as high as 7 cents per piece on all pieces mailed!
To meet this new USPS requirement and avoid the possibility of incurring these penalties, Datamann will require of its mailing services customers who mail at First Class or Standard Rates that ALL input names for merge purges with drop dates from November 23, 2008 forward be processed through NCOALink with 95 day of the mail drop date. Running the 48-month NCOALink process on all merge input names within the 95 day window is the most comprehensive way to prevent potential MERLIN failures due to the Move Update requirement. Currently, not all our mailing services customers apply NCOALink to all merge purge input names. A number of them will, for example, send out only house file names for address forwarding, relying on the NCOA standards of their list brokers and exchange partners for their prospect lists. Although this approach made sense in some situations, the number and variety of lists in a typical merge purge make tracking down and keeping track of the NCOA status of all those lists from different NCOA providers an impossible task with unreliable results.
In establishing this policy of comprehensive NCOALink on all names in, Datamann has considered not only the necessity of protecting customers from MERLIN violations, but also the benefits of NCOALink will yield in the merge purge process by identifying duplicates between new and “unforwarded” old addresses otherwise missed. It is also policy adopted by the Millard Group. The USPS has also authorized additional methods (including FastForward MLOCR, for letter mail only; OneCode ACS with Intelligent Mail barcode and a mailer id; Address Change Service; an non-ACS on-piece ancillary service endorsements) for meeting their Move Update requirement. These services may apply in some cases.
Mailing services customers should look for a letter from Datamann by the end of this month outlining this new policy. If you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask them to your list processing provider at Datamann. |
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