USPS drafts requirements for automated flat mail; polybags a no-go; full-size inserts a plus

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Feb 1, 1991 by Cary Peyton Rich

Polybags a no-go; full-size inserts a plus.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -As it stands now, Reader's Digest and Bride's won't be eligible for flats automation discounts-not that anyone's going to get them soon, anyway.

Proposed automation machinability requirements for flats rule out digest-size publications and magazines more than .75" thick. Postmaster General Anthony Frank is expected to announce a flats automation discount rate case in May. The proposal would have to go through a discussion period much like the past rate case, but could be decided more promptly than the 10-month limit.

The United States Postal Service plans for flat mail to be 100 percent barcoded by 1995. This excludes periodicals that are already carrier-route sorted, because barcoding those flats would be redundant.

"We've circulated the draft machinability guidelines," says Ed Kuebert, general manager of the USPS's flats processing division. "But we're not going to publish them formally until we've decided on a flats barcode reader." Current guidelines are based on engineering tests.

System-wide implementation of flat sorters is planned to be finished by 1995, but 800 will be in place by December 1992, according to Kuebert. "This is very aggressive, since we don't even have a flats barcode reader."

The USPS has been developing automated sorters and certain criteria have evolved. "The ideal mail piece is really hard to define," says Kuebert. "The machine can't tell the difference between 8 and 9 inches."

Characteristics for flat mail machinability include a size between 6" x 6" and 12" x 15", adequate rigidity and proper enclosures. "Full-length inserts can really enhance machinability," Kuebert notes. Magazines mailed in envelopes, which constitute 10 percent of those sent, he says, also do well on the machines. It is preferable to have the sealed flap on the long edge, since the short end can catch.

Barriers to machinability are magazines that are too thick, too small, too big or too flimsy. Polybagged titles catch in the machine. And external fasteners on envelopes-metal clasps, string, wax seals-can also hamper the automation process.