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Introduction

Table of Contents

Purpose
How the Information is Organized
Ensuring Mail Quality

Purpose  

This manual provides a description of Canada Post's requirements regarding the physical characteristics of individual items of Publications Mail.

How the Information is Organized  

This information is divided into three parts according to the method of mail preparation. Customers may either presort their mail as National Distribution Guide (NDG) or Letter Carrier Presort (LCP) according to the National Presort Schematic (NPS) or prepare their mail so that it can easily be read and sorted by Canada Post automated equipment. Part 1 – Common Requirements gives those requirements that apply to all Publications Mail, Part 2 – Presort Mail describes those requirements that are unique to mail that will be presorted, and Part 3 – Machineable Mail describes the requirements for mail that is to be machine processed. Within Part 2 and Part 3, specific requirements are shown for newspapers, and for magazines and newsletters.

Ensuring Mail Quality  

To encourage regular attention to mail quality and to offset extra handling costs, Canada Post is adding a surcharge to the fee for those mailings that can be processed but do not meet certain requirements. Some of these requirements involve the preparation of individual items and are included in this Guide:

For information about the other requirements and about other aspects of Publications Mail, see the Publications Mail Customer Guide and the Canada Postal Guide.