Move Update

Effective Nov. 23, 2008 the Postal Service is increasing its effort to improve the percentage of deliverable mail by revising the Move Update standards. The Move Update standards provide ways for mailers to reduce the number of mailpieces that require forwarding or return by the periodic matching of a mailer’s address records with customer-filed change-of-address orders. The final rule published Sept. 28, 2007, included the following changes related to Move Update processing: Increase the minimum frequency of Move Update processing from 185 calendar days to 95 days prior to the date of mailing.
Extend the revised Move Update standards to include all Standard Mail (letters, flats, parcels and Not Flat-Machinables), as well as automation-rate and presort-rate First-Class Mail.

Click here for additional information on Move Update requirements

http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/pubs/pub363.pdf

or

Select one of the following Move Update options:

The Postal Service offers Mailers four approved Move Update methods for First-Class Mail® and all Standard Mail®. Two additional alternative methods are also available for First-Class Mail only.

  • OneCode ACS™ (Address Change Service) in conjunction with an Intelligent Mail barcode and a mailer ID or Address Change Service used with an ACS participant code and an appropriate on-piece ancillary service endorsement.
  • NCOALink™ processing.
  • FASTforward® MLOCR processing (letter mail only).
  • Ancillary Service Endorsement.
ACS

ACS is a post process for mailers to use Postal endorsements or an Intelligent Mail barcode containing a Mailer Identifier (MI) code on their mailpieces to receive address changes electronically to update their next mailing. These records are organized by mailer identification codes and distributed to the participating mailer. Depending on a mailpiece's class and endorsement, mailers may also receive information on addresses that are undeliverable for reasons other than a customer move (i.e., nixie notifications).

Click here for more information: Address Change Service

NCOALinkTM

The NCOALink Product makes change-of-address information available to mailers to help reduce undeliverable mailpieces before mail enters the mailstream. The NCOALink Product is a secure dataset of approximately 160 million permanent USPS change-of-address records. The change-of-address data consists of the name and addresses of individuals, families and businesses who have filed a change-of-address with the USPS.
There are three levels of services:

  • Full Service Providers receive 48 months of change-of-address data weekly.
  • Limited Service Providers receive 18 months of data weekly.
  • End Users receive 18 months of change-of-address data monthly.
At the limited levels, mailers and End Users can process their own files instead of sending their files to third parties. Full Service and Limited Service Providers can offer NCOALink services to update third parties customer address files. End-users cannot offer NCOALink processing as a service. They can only process and update their own internal files. There are five types of licenses: Developer, Distributor, Full Service Provider, Limited Service Provider and End User.

Click here for more information: NCOALink

FASTforward® MLOCR

FASTforward Multiline Optical Character Reader (MLOCR) is a pre-mailing process that allows physical mailpieces to be updated in-house against the USPS change-of-address database. The FASTforward MLOCR system contains more than 40 million permanent USPS change-of-address records from the previous 13 months. If a change of address is provided, the new address is printed directly on the mailpiece. Licensees must maintain MASS certification for each optical character reader processing FASTforward.

Click here for more information: FASTforward

Ancillary Service Endorsement

Any mailer may use an ancillary service endorsement to (1) request a hard-copy notification of the addressee’s new address and (2) tell the Postal Service how to handle UAA mail. You may combine ancillary service endorsements with other approved Move Update methods. Mailers can meet Move Update requirements for First-Class Mail service or Standard Mail service by using the following endorsements to update addresses:

  • Return Service Requested
  • Temp-Return Service Requested (First-Class Mail only)
  • Address Service Requested

Click here for more information: http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/pubs/pub363.pdf

Alternative Methods – First-Class Mail Only

99 Percent Accurate Method - The 99 Percent Accurate Method test allows mailers, who consider their mailing lists already accurate and/or too sensitive to provide to third parties for processing, to comply with the Move Update requirement by confirming their internal address correction processes meet the USPS 99 Percent standards. Mailers submit their files directly to the USPS for processing and if it is determined that 1% or less of the submitted addresses have a change of address on file, the files are considered Move Update compliant.

Click here for more information: 99 Percent Accurate Method Testing

Legal Restriction - Some mailers claim there is a legal restriction that prevents them from incorporating Postal Service change of address (COA) information without direct notification from the addressee.

Click here for more information: http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/pubs/pub363.pdf