gapizzaman:
I want to know if anyone can help me. I currently mail rural routes now using my bulk mail permit. The city routes the post office requires that I individually address postcards with barcode- does anyone know where I can buy a city route list for my zip codes. I know how to use microsoft office mail merge with a 5 digit zip barcode but does mail merge work when you have to use a nine digit barcode? :?
You can buy your list at
melissadata.com. You just need to purchase an “Occupant List”; nothing fancy. If you’re buying an entire zip code it will come out to about 1 cent per address. Buying each carrier route individually is much more expensive, so buy the whole zip at once if you’re going to use it.
The occupant list will come sorted in the order the carrier walks and that’s the order you need to deliver them in to get the best discount. You’re going to put ECRWSS on them above the address along with the route number. That stands for “Enhanced Carrier Route - Walk Sequence Saturation.” Sorting them in the order the carrier walks is a royal PITA if you’re printing them 4-up. You’re going to have some manual labor to sort them. It’s actually easy, for each route you’re just going to put them so all fo the ZIP+4’s are running in numerical order. I usually run a separate merge with sequential numbers and print it small somewhere on the card. It’s easier to follow “1” and then “2” and so on. All of the +4’s start to blend together after a while of sorting.
As for barcodes: ECRWSS mail to city routes does not require them according to the DMM. They’re never going to leave that building; the carriers will take your postcards and just drop them into their sorting boxes in order. That’s why they need to be in the correct order, it makes it much faster for them to do. Now your post office may, for some reason, tell you something different. It seems rare that they’re completely versed in the DMM. I would direct them to the appropriate sections of the DMM. If you’re going to do saturation, I think you’re better off with no barcode as it makes it look like junk mail. Here’s the links that spell out the requirements:
http://pe.usps.gov/cpim/ftp/manuals/qsg300/q340c.pdf - Look at page two for examples of how to address – no barcode present.
http://pe.usps.gov/cpim/ftp/manuals/DMM300/343.pdf - Describes Basic Eligibility for Saturation.
http://pe.usps.gov/cpim/ftp/manuals/DMM300/345.pdf - Describes Walk Sequence Sorting. Be sure to scroll down to 6.9.3 for some important info about having your list certified. Melissa Data’s lists will come with this.
Good Luck! It’s always fun trying to figure out the 2,000 pages of the DMM :shock: