Design Tips: No Mailing Surcharges, No Way
“Designers get so caught up in the design, they don’t consider the mail-ability of the piece,” said Rey Valdez, a Mailpiece Design Analyst in San Francisco who works with West Coast businesses.
Mailpiece Design Analysts are the postal service’s answer to your prayers. There are 160 MDAs in the United States standing by to advise printers, ad agencies, and graphic designers on mailing issues, including testing designer’s paper selections for acceptable thickness, background color, flexibility, rigidity, and barcode print tolerances.
MDAs will also review artwork before printing. Valdez works with designers by appointment and likes to see a PDF of a design rather than a fax. “With faxes, there’s always a reduction in size and it skews what I see,” he said. If there’s a question about closures or which materials are acceptable, he needs to see the actual items.
By visiting the Postal Explorer Web site at https://pe.usps.gov, you can find an MDA in your area. Just scroll down and highlight the mailpiece design section.
Assistance to Reduce Your Rates
The U.S.P.S. wants to educate designers and print buyers on exactly what the post office equipment and manpower can and cannot do. Its recent seminar on mailpiece design in San Francisco focused on the requirements for processing mail without incurring additional charges.
Those surcharges can add up when tens of thousands of pieces go out. If they can’t be deciphered by machine, the surcharge is an additional 13 cents for a nonmachinable First Class single piece rate and .058 cents per piece for nonmachinable presorted letters. Add .042 cents to standard nonmachinable mail and .021 cents to each nonmachinable nonprofit piece of mail and additional charges could be more than expected.
The post office also has a number of free publications to assist designers, including Publication 25: Designing Letter and Reply Mail, which will tell you everything you need to know about how to get the best possible postage rates.
Beware of Color and Texture
The post office’s automation process needs contrast to read addresses at high speed and favors white or light pastel papers for legibility. Some papers with visible fibers are not acceptable, specifically those that contain dark fibers that, when scanned, may interfere with the mailing address.
For envelopes, beware of those printed with security patterns. The pattern cannot have more than a 15 percent contrast with the paper. Other envelopes that can’t be processed on the presorting machine are polywrap envelopes, shrinkwrap, or spun bonded olefin synthetic packaging.
The Right Kind of Ink
The MDA will also test your ink color for acceptability. As with any scanning process, reds are a problem. Some metallics can be used, but submit swatches with the written address on them for a contrast test to the MDA office.
Type without Tears
If you want your typography to be friends with the presorting machines, the post office advises you to use a sans serif, uppercase typeface that’s 10 to 12 points high. Some recommended fonts that read well are Helvetica, Arial Black, Copperplate, Courier, and Lucinda Sans.
They’ve had problems with other typefaces. Serif type and script are difficult to read and bold type is too thick. Letter spacing, condensed type, and italic copy create irregular character shapes or overlapping. Also, don’t use underlines or grids unless they are screened back to 15 percent.
Your Mailpiece Shape
You want your mailpiece to look unique and attract your customers’ attention. But an odd-shaped mailpiece may not only cost more to design and print, but also may be nonmailable (such as a round postcard) or subject to a surcharge.
The shape of your mailpiece will determine the rate you pay. For example, shapes like squares and tubes are charged a higher rate or a special surcharge because those pieces must be processed manually.
The post office will give you a Dimensional Standards Template to check that your mail measurements and sizes are clearly defined for automated processing. Letter size mail must be rectangular with four square corners and parallel opposite sides. It must be a minimum of 3-1/2 inches high, 5 inches long and .007 thick. The maximum size letter is 6-1/8 inches high, 11-1/2 inches long and ½ inch thick.
Be aware that minimum postcard dimensions must also be 3-1/2 inches high, 5 inches long, and .007 inch thick. The maximum card size is 4-1/2 inches high x 6 inches long x .016 inches thick. If your postcard does not meet these dimensions, the Postal Service considers it a letter and charges letter rate postage.
Some Tips to Avoid Surcharges
- The minimum quantity that qualifies for an automated rate for presorting is 250 pieces or 50 lbs.
- Avoid square pieces. They don’t fit well into mail processing equipment and you will have to pay extra postage.
- Always place the delivery address parallel to the longest side of the mailpiece.
- Standard Mail parcels (including tubes and other kinds of packages) are charged a “residual shape surcharge,” which covers the extra costs of processing bulky or odd-shaped items.
- Don’t mail bulky, odd-shaped things like pens or bottle caps in regular letter envelopes. Not only will you pay more in postage, but these items may poke through the envelope, be lost, damage postal equipment, or cause an injury.
In 2007, first class postage will probably increase from 39 cents to 41 cents, so now is a good time to understand and avoid excess surcharges. You’ll save time and money for your clients and their business mail will arrive at their destination on time and intact.
For more information, go to www.usps.com for products and services for household and business mail. At the Postal Explorer site, https://pe.usps.gov, you’ll find publications specific to the needs of domestic and international mail, while the rapid information bulletin board system (www.ribbs.usps.gov) presents programs, news, and FAQs.
This article was last modified on January 6, 2023
This article was first published on November 13, 2006
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