Effective November 23, 2008 the United States Postal Service is revising its “Move Update” standard and increasing their effort to improve the percentage of deliverable mail. Indiana University will need to comply with this directive.

What is "Move Update" and why is it important?

The USPS has put a goal in place to reduce Undeliverable as Addressed mail fifty percent by 2010. To meet that goal, the USPS requires that the sender verify that the NAME/INDIVIDUAL to whom the mail is addressed, actually resides at that address. This has been a requirement on Permit 2 first-class mailings for several years, but is now being extended to include all Permit 2 mailings.

Non-compliance could subject your department to penalties by the USPS and loss of past and future discounts.

Here are some suggestions to help your department avoid these potential penalties and maintain compliance:                                                   

1. For internal address databases--maintain documentation when you have updated or verified the address database.
2. For externally purchased address databases--require the seller to certify that they are "Move Update" compliant.
3. For all address databases--consider sending the address database to NCOA processing (checking your database for moves in the last 48 months).

Ancillary Endorsements

You will be in compliance if your department uses an ancillary endorsement (Address Service Requested, Return Service Requested or Change Service Requested) AND your department updates its database.  However, you must be able to prove that the database was updated.  The USPS has assigned field auditors to businesses to verify that they are maintaining compliance with the "Move Update Compliance Process."  There are additional costs associated with the New Address notifications.  If you have questions about which endorsement to use, and the financial impact it could have on your mailings, please contact us at 855-3503 or access this flowchart for assistance. 

Note:  The use of Endorsements will not be sufficient as a long term solution to the Move Update requirements.

Exemptions

Standard Mail bearing a simplified or alternative address format (i.e., "Joe Hoosier” or “Current Resident", "Postal Customer", etc.) will not be subject to the Move Update requirement.

Addresses updated as part of any mailing can be used again for another class of mail without being updated again, as long as the second mailing is within 95 days of the first Move Update process.

Procced to the Authorization Form