USPS to eliminate most sacks for Periodicals as of Jan 22 — some still allowed
Jan 5, 2023
USPS continued its push to revise its mail processing procedures today with an announcement that sacks will no longer be accepted for Periodicals, Marketing Mail or other classes. But some exceptions will be made.
Sack handling has been targeted as a high-cost area in mail processing for more than a decade. National Newspaper Association led the way for urging elimination of sacks under the leadership of late Postal Committee Chair Max Heath with his “Sack the Sacks” campaign. But mailers continue to use some sacks because of ease of transport, and in some cases because flats trays as an alternative container have been unavailable.
But now USPS is changing its operation to eliminate sack handling inside mail processing plants. It has assured mailers that sufficient Mail Transport Equipment will be available to serve as appropriate containers.
The exceptions:
- For Periodicals and Marketing Mail: sacks can be accepted when they are carrier route containers, 5-digit scheme containers or 5-digit carrier route containers
- For mail entered at Delivery Units, no container is needed. Bundles can be entered directly.
To mitigate the impact on larger mailers, the 100-pound weight minimum for pallets destined for mixed ADC destinations will be eliminated so mailers can put bundles on pallets for these sparsely-distributed destinations.
The USPS announcement is available here: 2022-28587.pdf (govinfo.gov)
