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The latest set of Post Office regulation changes for tabbed mail is going to go into effect in September of 2009. While not all of the changes are convenient (most change is very inconvenient), they are coming and they will be set in stone. It's something we're just going to have to deal with.
The biggest change (the one that will affect production the most) is the way booklets are tabbed. The commonly accepted definition of a booklet is anything with multiple sheets that are bound, fastened, or glued. The regulations for self-mailers (one continuous sheet of paper folded) have not changed.
The booklets will have to have 1.5 inch, non-perforated tabs (most production tabbers are capable of handling these) on different sides of the piece. Most booklet mailing jobs, where the spine or the final fold is on the longer edge, will need 2 tabs on the leading edge and one tab on the trailing edge.
This isn't easy for everyone to do. The pieces will now have to turn as they run between the address printer and the tabbers. There are some exceptions. If someone has a print head that will cover at least 3 inches, then they can just print the address out long ways and shoot the piece straight through the tabber. But most mailers are not equipped with this wide of a printhead.
The easiest way to get all of this to work in one straight shot, is to tab the booklet (using 2 tabbersone for each side, which is sometimes referred to as head-&-foot tabbing'), bump-turn it, and then print the address.
Now this isn't possible if your address printer has a shuttle feeder attached. In those cases, you'll have to print first, then bump-turn, and finally tab the pieces. But since bump-turning is much easier when you're turning the piece from landscape to portrait, it would be more productive to upgrade your inkjet with a newer in-line transport.
You can see these two different processes in the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arCe9aDhwUI
The first part of the video shows printing first, the second part shows tabbing first.
These two ways work if you have two tabbers. But the operative word there is "if". With the economy in a slump, not everyone can afford a second tabber. Some mail houses will have to settle for manually re-feeding the pieces into a tabber after the pieces have gone through once.
In the worst case scenario, a mailer might have a shuttle fed address printer and only one tabber. This situation would spell major headaches. The piece would not only have to be turned AFTER addressing (which could cause sort problems whenever the machines malfunction), but would need to be fed through twice (which is just one more way for the sorted pieces to get mixed up).
The new regulations are like most USPS changes. They can be difficult, but they're not impossible. If you don't already have the equipment and supplies to handle the changes, Talk to your vendors and get ready for September now.
Rick Krieger is the owner of Addresser Based Systems, a mail equipment dealer who keeps their customers on the cutting edge of Mailroom Equipment and Address Printers at http://addresserbasedsystems.com. |
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