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Front of envelope showing required layout
Click image for enlarged view of required layout for envelopes.

From 1 July 2008, NZ Post require that all mail falls into the 'machine readable' and 'bulk mail' categories to comply with the standards published in NZ Post's Bulk Mail Guidelines for Volume Post.

This affects all DLE and C5 envelopes used in bulk mailouts which require a reduced rate.

Main requirements

  • The Permit impression must be placed with the 'Indicia' area at the top right of the envelope face. The Indicia area is 80mm wide and 40mm high. The Permit impression itself is to be 60mm wide and 14mm high.
  • No graphics, logo or text must appear in the bottom 15mm of the envelope face. This is the Sortcode clear zone, which is where the sorting machines write the barcode information that facilitates mail delivery.
  • The sender address (and logo) must only appear in the Sender address area at the top left of the envelope. This area is 100mm wide and 40mm high. Within the sender address, all street/suburb/city/country information should be in one line, separated by commas. For example:

21 Smith Street, Port Chalmers, Dunedin 9001, New Zealand

not

21 Smith Street
Port Chalmers
Dunedin 9001
New Zealand

  • This to prevent the device that reads the delivery address on the envelope from reading the return address in error.
  • The address area extends across the front of the enelope, and must avoid the Sender address area, the Indicia area and the Sortcode zone. As of next year, the new NZ Postcodes are to be used. The postcode must follow the city name, separated by a space, and not be printed on the following line. For example:

47 Jones Street
Port Chalmers
Dunedin 9001
New Zealand

not

47 Jones Street
Port Chalmers
Dunedin
9001
New Zealand

Surcharge

Any piece of mail which does not comply with these standards will incur a 15 per cent surcharge. For your mail to go at the cheap bulk rate, ensure that your envelopes are correctly laid out and your merged address information is accurate and correctly formatted.

Further information

Full details and descriptions of all of the above (plus other useful information) can be found in Bulk Mail Guidelines for Volume Post 1 and Bulk Mail Guidelines for Volume Post 3 on the NZ Post website.

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