The National Newspaper Association announced that the final USPS Bundling Rule was published March 12, 2025 in the Federal Register. The effective date is July 1, 2025.
The key requirements are:
The Postal Service is revising the standards in DMM section 203.4.4 to include an exemption for mailings of 500 flat-sized pieces or fewer entered at the BMEU from bundle preparation. Applicable mailings may be prepared loose in flat trays instead of in bundles. The Postal Service is also revising the standards in sections 203.4.5, 203.4.8, and 203.4.9 to require all bundles of flats to have two or more cross-strapped bands or be shrink-wrapped with one or more cross-strapped bands except for newspapers that are placed in a flat tray and entered as exceptional dispatch. These exceptional dispatch newspapers can use only one strap around the middle to prevent damage. Additionally, the Postal Service is eliminating the use of rubber bands and twine/string for securing bundles of flats except for bundles of First-Class Mail flats placed in flat trays. Furthermore, section 245.9.5(d) will be revised to reflect that shrink-wrapped multi carrier route bundles require two or more cross-strapped bands. These changes will become effective on July 1, 2025.
NNA filed comments seeking an exception to the rule for newspapers. NNA’s Mailers Technical Advisory Council representative Matt Paxton, publisher of the News-Gazette in Lexington, Virginia, stated, “We’re disappointed USPS chose not to allow an exception to the new rule for DDU and Exceptional Dispatch mailings. Postal officials say that the bundling issue is still being evaluated and we hope to be involved in that.”
Paxton, who is in Washington, D.C., for the March MTAC meeting, sought out clarification from USPS Director of Product Classification Dale Kennedy on the rule for those entering mail through exceptional dispatch.
Kennedy clarified that the provision allowing Exceptional Dispatch mail loose in tubs should also apply to DDU entered mail.
The NNA Postal Team will detail Exceptional Dispatch mail prep in the Max Heath Postal Institute’s 2025 training series, Special Sessions. Surviving Realignment (exceptional dispatch, etc.) is scheduled for Thursday, July 31. Visit NNA.org for more information.
