The U.S. Postal Service has ruled that unless calendars have a substantial amount of accompanying editorial copy they must be mailed at first class rates instead of Standard B bound printed matter rates. The ruling has a great potential impact on major mailers and nonprofit groups that mail millions of calendars to large customers, donors and members each year, such as the National Wildlife Federation and the Sierra Club.
In her ruling, rates and classification subclass manager Sherry Suggs said “a calendar that does not contain a substantial amount of text is more akin to stationary or merchandise than catalogs and books, and excluding calendar pats from bound printed matter rates is consistent with our intent to disallow stationary from being classified as bound printed matter.”
She also said it was “reasonable” to extend the prohibition to “other types of calendars, particularly those containing blank spaces for note taking.” From now on the USPS will decide which calendar mailing qualifies for Standard B bound printed rates on a case-by case basis, according to Suggs.
The ruling was immediately blasted by Gene Del Polito, Association for Postal Commerce president, and Neal Denton, Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers.
Del Polito said the ruling was “inexplicable” since the USPS historically has treated calendars of all kinds, including those of churches and other nonprofit groups as bound printed matter.
Denton questioning how postal officials will determine how much written text a calendar must have before it can be sent at Standard B bound printed matter rates, asked if “this is just another episode where customers of the USPS will have to find different ways to get their products in the hands of their customers?”
Both predicted organizations sending out such premiums would have to spend thousands of dollars more to mail their calendars.
Del Polito said late last year he asked for a clarification of the issue after postal officials, for the first time, rejected a Standard B bound printed matter calendar mailing by one of his group’s members which he declined to identify.
