The Mailers’ Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) is a venue for the USPS to share technical information with mailers and receive advice and recommendations concerning mail-related products and services, in an effort to enhance customer value and expand the use of USPS products and services. Meetings are hosted once per quarter and offer an opportunity for mailers to directly interact with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) executive leadership team on new and existing programs. Here, Canon production inkjet customers and thINK members Eric Hollingsworth (Vice President of Operations, RevSpring), Scott Williams (General Manager of Operations, Impact), and Dina Kessler (President, Kessler Creative) share a recap from the January 14–15, 2025 MTAC meeting with the thINK community.

MTAC Restructure

The latest MTAC kicked off on Tuesday, January 14 at 1pm with the announcement of a new MTAC structure that is in effect as of January 2025. In the past, Tuesday’s session was open to people in the industry who could request to attend even if they were not members, and Wednesday was a closed session available only to members. The new structure allows only MTAC members, postal stakeholders, and sponsored guests who are pre-registered. To be a sponsored guest, you must be invited by a member association executive or a postal stakeholder and then approved by the MTAC team.

National Postal Forum

National Postal Forum will be held in Nashville, Tennessee April 27–30, 2025 at the Gaylord Opryland. Current registrations have already exceeded the attendance records set over the last ten years. This year is the 250th anniversary of the USPS, and a celebration is planned for Monday night’s PCC reception.

Changes to Bound Printed Matter

Both BPM Flats and Parcels have experienced consistent volume decreases over the past several years, so the category of BPM has been eliminated. Flats will be combined with marketing mail, and parcels will be combined with media mail and ground advantage. The weight limit for marketing mail flats has increased to 24 oz. and they introduced a new heavy printed matter rate category that will include marketing mail parcels up to 15 lbs. Anything over ¾” would be considered fulfillment instead. They are hoping to hear back so they can file it in April. 

Mail Growth Incentive

This past year, there were 1,336 registrations with $534 million of postage credits given to mail owners. This generated 5.4 billion new mail pieces from over 570 companies. 

The new incentive period is 1/25–12/25. They account for the baseline during 10/23–9/24 with credits issuing July 2025, October 2025, and January 2026, excess of 1 million pieces or FY24 baseline volume. 
Unfortunately, it was shared that an increase will happen in July 2025 for all mail classes. Mailers should prepare for full rate authority. Additionally, the rate could be impacted by the CAP authority (provided by incurred promotion expense). Speculation is 7–9% total authority in July, but we will know more later in the year. There was much offline discussion that occurred from this conversation.

USPS Promotion and Incentives Discussion

During MTAC, a user group met to discuss and receive clarification on the current USPS promotions and incentive programs.
Continuous Contact Promotion

Clarification was requested on the content qualification that requires follow-up pieces to relate back to the initial mailing, which can include cross-sells, up-sells, or similar mailings with different messaging. Clarification was provided that follow-up mailings should not be identical to the initial mailing but can be similar. For example, a credit card offer can be followed by a similar offer with a new APR or additional features. It was agreed that the guidebook would be updated to reflect this. 

Auto Enrollment and Pick-Six

There was discussion around the complexities of managing auto-enrollment, especially for large organizations with multiple business units. Suggestions included defining business units and associated CRIDs to streamline the process. Other proposed solutions included a cutoff date for mail owners to opt into auto-enrollment, allowing flexibility in selecting promotion periods, and allowing mail owners to select their dates to resolve issues with multiple MSPs mailing under a CRID.

Currently, there is visibility into the number of auto-enrolled participants, though specific details were not provided. Auto-enrollment is significant for certain promotions, such as TSI, indicating the need to continue this practice. 

Concerns were raised about potential chaos when using multiple providers and a floating calendar, which could lead to different promotion periods for different organizations.

The following terminology was clarified:

• "Auto-enroll" refers to an MSP enrolling a participant.

• "Pick six" is a chosen time period for promotions.

• Integrated technology currently requires self-enrollment by mail owners, as MSPs cannot auto-enroll them.

There was a suggestion to define a registration period where, if mail owners do not select their promotion period by December 31, they would default to a predefined period starting January 1. This approach simplifies the process but removes the flexibility of selecting a custom period.

Meeting with the Postmaster General 

Postmaster General Louis Dejoy spoke to MTAC members during a closed meeting on Wednesday, January 15, 2025. The PMG started the meeting by reflecting on the past year and outlining some achievements. Specifically, he mentioned the restructured air network, which changed hundreds of daily flights and cut over $1 billion from the budget. Additionally, he mentioned the opening of four new plants in Q4 2024: Indianapolis, Phoenix, Dallas, and Denver. The PMG is optimistic about financial improvements in Q4 of 2024. 

The ongoing strategy and challenges surround network optimization, infrastructure challenges, transportation improvements, and labor optimization. Ongoing and planned improvements include modernization of facilities, with the goal of creating standardized layouts with better flow for more efficient sorting; improvements to the transportation fleet; and technology upgrades such as enhancing the IV-MTR feed and modernizing the PTR. Additionally, USPS ship migrations are in process. Finally, simplifications to make the business portal more user-friendly were promised.

Please feel free to reach out to Eric, Scott, or Dina if you have any questions regarding MTAC or the information shared. We represent the thINK community while at MTAC and are glad to ask questions on your behalf.