PMB: THE NEW REQUIREMENT
Business People With Private Mail Boxes Will Face New Regulations This April. Here's What it Means to You.
By Ed Justice
Effective April 26, 2000 the U.S. Postal Department is requiring anyone who has a mailbox somewhere other than the U.S. Postal Office to designate so, by placing PMB (Private Mail Box) or a pound sign beside the box number. The Postal Authorities have made several changes to this program due to all the uproar from those who both send out large mailings and those who handle very large databases, but as of the writing of this article all information is currently valid.
There are those who view someone with a PMB as being somewhat "less" in the world of business simply because of the PMB designation in front of the box number. Is that a valid assumption? No, but business owners are faced with prejudice like this. Actually, a Private Mail Box allows you to receive a wider variety of mail, which allows for the smooth operation of your business.
Let's say you have a home-based business and you work during the day and run your business during the evening hours. Now let's also assume that you want to be able to accept any shipment that comes to you via any postal carrier, even the Post Office. Will the U.S. Post Office allow these outside deliveries of the other postal carriers? No! Will the postal mail box companies who now are required to call their boxes PMBs allow these outside deliveries? Yes!
Now, let's look at another example. Let's say that you have a home-based business and the city you live in requires you to have a Private Mail Box if you want to receive any regular outside postal deliveries. Now what do you do if you want to receive anything from UPS, Fedex, or any of a number of other outside Postal Delivery Companies on a regular basis? You would be required to open a PMB to deal with such deliveries.
Fortunately, the Postal Service has made some major changes in how the new PMB postal designation may be written on outgoing mail. The new address layouts make more sense than the original "One Address Layout for All" policy. Due to the outcry from mailers using huge databases, the Postal Service now accepts three layouts for addresses using the PMB designation:
1. ANYBODY PMB 1234 00000 ANY STREET ANY CITY, STATE 12345-6789 2. ANYBODY 00000 ANY STREET PMB 1234 ANY CITY, STATE 12345-6789 3. ANYBODY 00000 ANY STREET #1234 ANY CITY, STATE 12345-6789
This allows users a choice and is convenient for those wishing to use the pound sign (#) rather than a PMB designation on their business address. Remember that the new options go into effect on April 26, 2000.
Ed Justice, Publisher, Author and Business Person, has been published in many newspapers and magazines nationwide. To learn more about how his company, A&E Publishing can help you, subscribe to his e-zine at:
ae-pubs@pacbell.net
Or you may visit the A&E Publishing web site at:
http://www.aepublishing.com
 |
|
 |
|
 |
