The Skinny On Slim Jims
An update from ACMA (American Catalog Mailers Association) suggests that catalogers may want to start preparing for imminent changes to USPS rates for slim jims. ACMA says their best guess is that many of the changes to slim jim regulations suggested by a Federal Register notice in March 2008 will become official, with final rules expected to be published in February 2009 and an effective date in May.
You may recall that the PRC suggested catalogers simply convert to a slim jim format as a lower cost alternative to the sharply higher catalog mailing rates that became effective in summer 2007. While many catalogers did not want to reformat their books, some did, and the volume of slim jims in the mail increased. Unfortunately, as ACMA explains, the increased volume made it obvious that some slim jims were causing “train wrecks” on high speed sorting equipment—the very equipment on which they are presumed to ride, justifying mailing at lower letter rates.
The USPS and the mailing industry agreed to collaborate on a series of tests to determine what characteristics make some slim jims “machinable” while others are not. Under the new regulations, slim jim formats that do not run well on the equipment will be charged nonmachinable letter prices or the applicable flats postage rate as appropriate. This leaves many catalogers with longer planning and production lead times trying to determine what to do with slim jims, since if forced to pay higher rates anyway, most catalogers would prefer to have larger format books with more square inches for merchandise.
ACMA expects additional tabs on each booklet with specific tab requirements covering the material, placement and configuration of the tabs to be used, and that the perforated clear poly tabs in popular use today will be prohibited in favor of specific sized paper tabs. They also expect that effective page count will be limited by new lower weight and thickness requirements that mean lighter, thinner booklets than are mailable today, and heavier cover stock. ACMA warns that equipment may score and mar both front and back booklet covers, so mailers may need to accept more handling marks than typical on flat catalogs that go through different processing.
As an ACMA member, F. Curtis Barry & Company is getting more details on these issues. If you would like to have this information, please contact us directly. You should also consider becoming an ACMA member yourself. ACMA continues to work to support you, and needs your support to continue. Get in touch with Hamilton Davison, Executive Director, at hdavison@catalogmailers.org or 401-529-8183.
–
F. Curtis Barry & Co. works with multichannel businesses to increase catalog profitability through the evaluation and implementation of order management systems, inventory management systems, warehouse management systems that match client objectives.
Tweet This 
Delicious 
Digg 
Facebook 
StumbleUpon
Related posts
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
