Mail, Part I: Understanding USPS Changes Slated for May
Mary Ann Bennett, president and CEO of The Bennett Group, Rochester, N.Y., and a leading expert in mail and postal regulations, explained the USPS is designed to move mail, not store and warehouse it. Mail must move through the system as quickly as possible. “Every postal program, every piece of equipment, every requirement is to facilitate the efficient and accurate movement of mail from the acceptance dock to ... mailbox[es],” she said. The keys, stressed Bennett, are avoiding flats and parcels, and discovering what constitutes a letter at the USPS. “Most people would be very surprised. Certainly, 99 out of 100 designers don’t realize the difference,” she commented. “In fact, a 64-page catalog can be a letter. Anything that is 61⁄8x111⁄2” and 1⁄4” thick is a letter. The discounts are out there; the knowledge is not. Part of the revenue [the USPS] generates is due to our ignorance.”
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- Mary Ann Bennett