76930 Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 246 / Tuesday, December 23, 2014 / Proposed Rules 

POSTAL SERVICE 

39 CFR Part 111 

Address Quality Measurement 

Alternative 

AGENCY: Postal ServiceTM. 

ACTION: Proposed rule. 

SUMMARY: The Postal Service proposes 

to revise Mailing Standards of the 

United States Postal Service, Domestic 

Mail Manual (DMM®), to add a new 

Address Quality Measurement process 

for participating mailers, who enter 

eligible basic and full-service mailings. 

DATES: Submit comments on or before 

January 22, 2015. 

ADDRESSES: Mail or deliver written 

comments to the manager, Product 

Classification, U.S. Postal Service, 475 

L’Enfant Plaza SW., Room 4446, 

Washington, DC 20260–5015. You may 

inspect and photocopy all written 

comments at USPS® Headquarters 

Library, 475 L’Enfant Plaza SW., 11th 

Floor North, Washington, DC, by 

appointment only, between 9 a.m. and 

4 p.m., Monday through Friday by 

calling 202–268–2906 in advance. 

Comments by email, containing the 

name and address of the commenter, 

may be sent to: ProductClassification@

usps.gov, with a subject line of 

‘‘Address Quality Measurement.’’ Faxed 

comments are not accepted. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Heather Dyer (207) 482–7217, email: 

heather.l.dyer@usps.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Postal 

Service continues to look for 

opportunities to work with mailers on 

improving address quality and reducing 

undeliverable-as-addressed (UAA) mail. 

One key driver of UAA mail is outdated 

address information resulting from 

changes when a postal customer moves. 

With the advent of Intelligent Mail®

barcodes (IMb) and electronic 

documentation (eDoc), the Postal 

Service has established new tools to 

measure address quality pertaining to 

move-related changes. The Address 

Quality Measurement Tool is a 

scorecard that will be used to convey 

information on address hygiene. This 

data-driven approach will allow the 

Postal Service to provide valuable 

feedback to mailers who enter 

qualifying mailings. 

After an initial period, and subject to 

the appropriate regulatory approvals, 

the Postal Service plans to assess an 

Address Quality Assessment Fee on 

mailpieces in qualifying mailings that 

contain change-of-address (COA) errors 

in excess of a published threshold. The 

Postal Service is sharing the scorecard 

now so that mailers will have an 

opportunity to improve their address 

quality before the Address Quality 

Assessment Fee is implemented. The 

Postal Service proposes to use the 

Address Quality Measurement Tool for 

qualifying mailings of Bound Printed 

Matter (BPM) flats and letter- and flatsize First-Class Mail®, Periodicals, and 

Standard Mail® pieces. In the future, 

mailpieces that do not meet address 

quality compliance would be subject to 

an Address Quality Assessment Fee. 

Currently, the Postal Service requires 

mailers to update addresses related to 

COA through the Move Update 

requirements. Those standards will 

continue for non-qualifying mailings. 

In addition, the Postal Service intends 

to extend free address change service 

(ACSTM) to mailers who submit mailing 

information using eDoc and enter 

mailings that contain greater than 75 

percent full-service eligible mailpieces 

for the calendar month, including Basic 

IMb, single-piece, and residual pieces 

contained within such mailings. The 

Postal Service is also considering 

ending the requirement that Periodicals 

pay for manual address corrections 

unless such manual address correction 

notifications are specifically requested 

by the Periodicals mailer. These changes 

would also need regulatory approvals. 

Background 

Today, when a mailing is entered, 

Move Update quality and error 

assessments may be evaluated on a mail 

sample by use of the Mail Evaluation 

Readability Lookup Instrument 

(MERLIN TM) process. Since August 

2014, USPS technology has further 

evolved so that, when mailers use an 

IMb and submit their postage statements 

and supporting documentation via 

eDoc, mail stream data collection can be 

used to evaluate the move-related 

quality for mail being processed. 

Therefore, the Postal Service proposes 

to use this new technology to evaluate 

address quality on specific mailings. 

Criteria 

The proposed Address Quality 

Measurement Tool and Assessment Fee 

will be only for mailings that meet the 

following requirements: 

• Use a Basic or full-service IMb on 

their mailpieces. 

• Use eDoc to submit mailing 

information. 

• Qualify 75 percent or more of their 

mailpieces per calendar month as fullservice. 

Once the assessment fee is in place, 

qualifying mailings will no longer be 

required to demonstrate or document 

other USPS-approved Move Update 

methods that are being used to update 

their address list. However, the Postal 

Service recommends that all mailers 

continue to use a Move Update method 

to remain below the compliance 

threshold; expedite the delivery of their 

customer’s mail by avoiding mail 

forwarding; and increase the security 

and privacy of sensitive customer 

information. 

Specifications 

The following specifications will be 

used to measure address quality 

regarding the currency of updating 

addresses related to customer moves, 

identify errors, and ultimately assess 

errors over the specified threshold: 

• Analysis will be performed on all 

pieces in the mailing, rather than on a 

sample. 

• The assessment will be determined 

by the number of COA errors, in a 

calendar month, divided by the total 

number of pieces mailed that were 

subject to analysis. The resulting 

percentage is compared to an error 

threshold established by USPS. 

COA errors are those pieces that fail 

to include the new address for a 

customer with a COA order on file for 

more than 95 days and less than 18 

months old, as specified below. 

Mailpiece Results 

• Data collected from the mail stream 

will be reconciled to eDoc 

documentation. 

• The results will be displayed in the 

Mailer Scorecard on the Electronic 

Verification tab by accessing the 

Business Customer Gateway (BCG) at 

https://gateway.usps.com/bcg/

detail.htm. 

• Mailers will be able to review the 

Mailer Scorecard and corresponding 

detailed reports to identify any 

anomalies or issues. 

• Issues may be raised to the 

PostalOne! ® Help Desk at 1–800–522– 

9085 or through local Business Mail 

Acceptance employees. 

• For the test period, the initial 

threshold will be set to 0.8%. In the 

future, the Postal Service plans to assess 

mailers for errors in excess of the error 

threshold. 

• For example, if the error threshold 

were set to 0.8%, 10,000 pieces are 

mailed in a calendar month, and one 

percent (100 pieces) is in error, then 0.2 

percent (= 1%–0.8%) or a total of 20 

pieces (= 100–80) would be assessed. 

The Postal Service is sharing the 

scorecard now so that mailers will have 

an opportunity to improve their address 

quality before the Address Quality 

Assessment Fee is implemented. 


tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with PROPOSALS
Federal Register / Vol. 79, No. 246 / Tuesday, December 23, 2014 / Proposed Rules 76931 

Implementation of Address Quality 

Assessment Fee 

The Postal Service plans to 

implement the Address Quality 

Assessment Fee during the calendar 

year of 2015, after appropriate 

regulatory approvals. 

Notice about changes regarding the 

extension of free address correction 

service and any withdrawal of the 

requirement for the payment of manual 

address correction notices for 

Periodicals will be provided at a later 

date. 

The Postal Service invites all 

comments and feedback. 

List of Subjects in 39 CFR Part 111 

Administrative practice and 

procedure, Postal Service. 

Although we are exempt from the 

notice and comment requirements of the 

Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 

553(b), (c)) regarding proposed 

rulemaking by 39 U.S.C. 410(a), we 

invite public comments on the 

following proposed revisions to Mailing 

Standards of the United States Postal 

Service, Domestic Mail Manual (DMM), 

incorporated by reference in the Code of 

Federal Regulations. See 39 CFR 111.1. 

Accordingly, 39 CFR part 111 is 

proposed to be amended as follows: 

PART 111—[AMENDED] 

■ 1. The authority citation for 39 CFR 

part 111 continues to read as follows: 

Authority: 5 U.S.C. 552(a); 13 U.S.C. 301– 

307; 18 U.S.C. 1692–1737; 39 U.S.C. 101, 

401, 403, 404, 414, 416, 3001–3011, 3201– 

3219, 3403–3406, 3621, 3622, 3626, 3632, 

3633, and 5001. 

■ 2. Revise the following sections of 

Mailing Standards of the United States 

Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual 

(DMM), as follows: 

Mailing Standards of the United States 

Postal Service, Domestic Mail Manual 

(DMM) 

* * * * * 

600 Basic Mailing Standards for All 

Mailing Services 

* * * * * 

602 Addressing 

* * * * * 

[Revise the title of 602.5.0 as follows:] 

5.0 Move Update and Address Quality 

Standards 

5.1 Basic Standards for Move Update 

[Revise the introductory paragraph 

only of 602.5.1 as follows:] 

The Move Update standard requires 

the periodic matching of a mailer’s 

address records with customer-filed 

change-of-address orders maintained by 

USPS. Each address, except for mail 

bearing an alternative address format 

(under 3.0) or meeting the Address 

Quality Measurement and Assessment 

Standards (under 5.4), in a mailing at 

commercial First-Class Mail presorted 

or automation prices, First-Class 

Package Service presorted parcel prices, 

Standard Mail, or Parcel Select 

Lightweight prices is subject to the 

Move Update standard and must meet 

these requirements: * * * 

* * * * * 

5.3 Basis for Move Update Assessment 

Charges 

[Revise 602.5.3b as follows:] 

b. Each of the assessed pieces is 

subject to the per piece assessment 

charge. See Notice 123—Price List. 

* * * * * 

[Revise 602.5.4 and rename as 602.5.6 

and add entirely new 602.5.4 as 

follows:] 

5.4 Basic Standards for Address 

Quality Measurement and Assessment 

Mailings that meet these requirements 

will not be subject to the Move Update 

standards in 1.0 to 4.0. Mailers of 

mailings that meet the Address Quality 

Measurement Standards will receive 

access to data showing the metrics on 

the currency of address updating. 

Mailings with sufficient errors to meet 

the criteria under 5.5 will be subject to 

the Address Quality Assessment Fee. 

The following mailings are subject to 

Address Quality Measurement if they: 

a. Use a Basic or full-service IMb on 

their mailpieces, 

b. Use eDoc to submit mailing 

information, and 

c. Qualify at least 75 percent or more 

of their mailpieces per calendar month 

as full-service. 

[Add new 602.5.5 as follows:] 

5.5 Basis for Address Quality 

Assessment Fee 

Mailings that meet the standards in 

5.4 are subject to an Address Quality 

Assessment Fee if more than [a 

specified percentage] of the mail has 

change of address (COA) errors, as 

determined by an analysis of the data 

captured during mail processing. 

Specifically, the mailpieces with 

addresses containing COA errors in 

excess of the error threshold will pay a 

per piece charge as follows: 

a. The mailpiece’s processing 

indicates that it contains a COA’s old 

address and the COA ‘‘Move Effective 

Date’’ or ‘‘Filed Date,’’ whichever is 

later, is between 95 days and up to 18 

months of the postage statement 

finalization date. This is called a Change 

of Address error. 

b. If the percentage of mailpieces with 

COA errors in a calendar month is 

greater than the address quality error 

threshold for all qualifying pieces 

mailed in a calendar month, any pieces 

above the threshold are subject to an 

assessment. 

c. Each of the assessed pieces is 

subject to an Address Quality 

Assessment Fee. 

d. Mail pieces sent to an address 

determined to be associated with a 

change of address that is temporary, 

foreign, Moved, Left No Address 

(MLNA), or Box Closed No Order 

(BCNO) will not be included in 

determining the assessment. 

* * * * * 

We will publish an appropriate 

amendment to 39 CFR part 111 to reflect 

these changes, if our proposal is 

adopted. 

Stanley F. Mires, 

Attorney, Federal Requirements. 

[FR Doc. 2014–29943 Filed 12–22–14; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 7710–12–P 

DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY 

Internal Revenue Service 

26 CFR Part 54 

[REG–132751–14] 

RIN 1545–BM44 

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 

Employee Benefits Security 

Administration 

29 CFR Part 2590 

RIN 1210–AB70 

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND 

HUMAN SERVICES 

45 CFR Part 146 

[CMS–9946–P2] 

RIN 0938–AS52 

Amendments to Excepted Benefits 

AGENCIES: Internal Revenue Service, 

Department of the Treasury; Employee 

Benefits Security Administration, 

Department of Labor; Centers for 

Medicare & Medicaid Services, 

Department of Health and Human 

Services. 

ACTION: Proposed rules. 

SUMMARY: This document contains 

proposed rules that would amend the 


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