We’ve been getting quite a few questions regarding the USPS plans to switch to Intelligent Mail Barcodes or IMb early in 2013. Lynda Hurley, Logistics Manager for The Dingley Press offers the following overview and advice on the transition.

By now, you probably have heard that the USPS will retire the POSTNET barcode for automated rate discounts effective January 28th, 2013. After that date, to qualify for the automated rate discount, your mailings must use an Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMb). The USPS has plans to take qualifying for the automated rate discount even further in 2014 by requiring mailers to be certified IMb Full Service in order to continue to receive automated discounts. The Full-Service option will provide the lowest automation discount price of 1/10 of a cent, as well as visibility into your mailing.

If you’re not sure which barcode your catalogs are being mailed with, contact your printer and/or distribution partner. They should help you understand what barcode is currently being used. If they are still using POSTNET be sure to ask how the company plans to transition to IMb and what their plans are for becoming Intelligent Mail Barcode Full-Service certified prior to 2014.

The Dingley Press has been using IMb since 2008. And we were one of the first catalog printers to be certified IMb Full-Service compliant, which also happed in 2008. Because we’ve been using IMb for several years now, all of our customer’s catalogs are sent using IMb Full-Service.

More postal changes are sure to come, so be sure to regularly check the blog and our social media pages for new information. And if you have any questions on IMb, postal discounts or catalog distribution in general, post a comment below or click here to send a message directly to us and we’ll be in touch.