Customer Support Ruling

Express Mail Reship Service
July 1993

PS-264 (507.6.6)

This Customer Support Ruling discusses Express Mail Reship Service and the collection of caller service fees for services rendered under this program.

Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) 507.6.6, provides that the Postal Service picks up Custom Designed and Next Day Service shipments made up of mail addressed to post office boxes and dispatches them as Express Mail Custom Designed or Next Day Service shipment pursuant to a service agreement on PS Form 5631 between the Postal Service and the mailer.

A commercial firm and its respective territorial agents pay a single fee for renting a post office box and separate fees for twelve box numbers (nonexisting post office boxes) at a post office for the purpose of using Express Mail reship service.  The mail is sorted to a distribution case, pulled from it, banded by box number, and then consolidated with other box mail of the commercial firm into an Express Mail pouch for reshipment to a bank located in another city.

Post offices should disregard overflow which occurs as a result of a box customer using Express Mail reship service.  This means that a caller service fee should not be collected because of an overflow situation.  However, if the incoming mail is being separated by box numbers, a caller service fee must be paid for each separation.  See DMM 508.5.5.1.

The commercial firm may avoid the payment of caller service fees by utilizing a single post office box address (and paying the appropriate box fee) and adopting internal designations to distinguish its agents (e.g., Department A, Department B, etc.).  These designations, which could be used by the firm to sort mail for its agents, would be placed above the post office box number in the address on incoming mail.  Under this arrangement, the Postal Service would not assign "phantom" box numbers and would reship the mail without separation.

(Signed)
Anita J. Bizzotto
Manager
Mailing Standards
United States Postal Service
Washington DC 20260-3436