by Marti Dowie at Meredith Print Advantage

You may recall, back in January, 2010, the USPS announced they were reducing the amount of droop allowed to qualify for automation rates for “FLAT” category mail piece. This reduction was delayed until October, 2010. The standard applies to all flats regardless of mail class. Failing the revised deflection specifications can potentially double or triple postage costs. As a reminder, the penalty will now be accessed beginning October 3, 2010. The penalty varies by the presort and drop ship level, but generally runs from $.02 to $.10/piece. For a mailing with 1 million pieces the penalty could range from $20,000 to $100,000!

Here are some of the factors that tend to negatively affect deflection:

• Changes in brands of like weight paper (brands have differing stiffness qualities)
• Rotogravure paper (grain runs a different direct than offset paper)
• European paper (tends to be less-sturdy)
• Page-size reductions
• Changes in cards/inserts (including size in some situations)
• Paper basis weight reduction

Despite repeated efforts by the mailing industry for 1-1/2 years, the USPS will not be offering a pre-certification process utilizing representative dummies. Deflection measured on the day of mail acceptance will determine compliance. So as you design pieces that will be relatively flimsy, you need to maintain a safety margin to account for factors out of your control (variability in humidity, inconsistency in paper production, etc). For flimsy pieces, we suggest you contact Meredith Print Advantage to help design your mail piece and prepare representative dummies. We will ensure they deflect no more than 1/2” less than the maximum allowed by the USPS. Electing to go with a smaller safety margin runs a greater risk of failing the Deflection test.