Giving You the Information You Need to Plan Your Political Direct Mail
On April 10, 2014, the United States Postal Service (USPS) implemented a new policy called Load Leveling on standard (bulk) mail drop shipped to the DSCF level. This new policy changes the way mail enters the DSCF level and moves through the postal system. The new policy is meant to “allow a more balanced distribution of DSCF standard mail across delivery days.” This basically means that this mail, if accepted by the DSCF on a Friday or Saturday, will now take 4 days (the previous the standard was at 3 days) to move through the postal system and to local post offices for delivery. This is intended to decrease the volume of mail being delivered on Mondays and level that mail throughout the week.
So what does this mean for your political direct mail this election? Luckily, if you are a qualified political mailer and are mailing with political red tags affixed to your mail, this policy will not affect you at all. This policy change does not apply to first class mail or qualified political mail, which moves through the system at first class speed.
If you are not a qualified political mailer, however, or a union organization doing member mail, this is something to consider if you are carefully targeting and timing your mail. Discuss this with your consultant or mail house vendor during the planning stages to assure that your mail is being delivered when you expect it to be shipped. It’s also smart to request Intelligent Bar Code tracking and adding a couple seeds to your data file to get reports on when the mail is actually being delivered. This evidence will give you great information about how this new policy is affecting your mail delivery so you can make the necessary adjustments on future mailings.
If you want more information about this new standard, see the Federal Register here.
Got Questions? Contact us here.