Electronic Indicators for the Mailing of Hazardous and Perishable Materials, 47720-47723 [2020-15773]
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Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 152 / Thursday, August 6, 2020 / Proposed Rules
Regulatory Notices and Analyses
The FAA has determined that this
regulation only involves an established
body of technical regulations for which
frequent and routine amendments are
necessary to keep them operationally
current, is non-controversial and
unlikely to result in adverse or negative
comments. It, therefore: (1) Is not a
‘‘significant regulatory action’’ under
Executive Order 12866; (2) is not a
‘‘significant rule’’ under DOT
Regulatory Policies and Procedures (44
FR 11034; February 26, 1979); and (3)
does not warrant preparation of a
regulatory evaluation as the anticipated
impact is so minimal. Since this is a
routine matter that will only affect air
traffic procedures and air navigation, it
is certified that this rule, when
promulgated, would not have a
significant economic impact on a
substantial number of small entities
under the criteria of the Regulatory
Flexibility Act.
Environmental Review
This proposal will be subject to an
environmental analysis in accordance
with FAA Order 1050.1F,
‘‘Environmental Impacts: Policies and
Procedures’’ prior to any FAA final
regulatory action.
List of Subjects in 14 CFR Part 71
Airspace, Incorporation by reference,
Navigation (air).
Paragraph 6005 Class E Airspace Areas
Extending Upward From 700 Feet or More
Above the Surface of the Earth.
*
*
*
*
*
ANM WA E5 Coeur D’Alene, ID [New]
Coeur d’Alene—Pappy Boyington Field
(Lat. 47°46′28″ N, long 116°49′11″ W)
That airspace within a 4.4-mile radius of
the Coeur d’Alene—Pappy Boyington Field,
and within 1.3 miles each side of the 183°
bearing from the airport extending from the
4.4-mile radius to 10 miles south of the
airport, and that airspace 4.4 miles each side
of the 250° bearing from the Coeur d’Alene—
Pappy Boyington Field extending from the
4.4-mile radius to 14.4 miles west of the
airport and that airspace 1.8 miles each side
of the 023° bearing from the Coeur d’Alene—
Pappy Boyington Field extending from the
4.4-mile radius to 8 miles northeast from the
airport.
Issued in Seattle, Washington, on July 29,
2020.
Byron Chew,
Group Manager, Acting Operations Support
Group, Western Service Center.
The Proposed Amendment
Accordingly, pursuant to the
authority delegated to me, the Federal
Aviation Administration proposes to
amend 14 CFR part 71 as follows:
[FR Doc. 2020–17060 Filed 8–5–20; 8:45 am]
PART 71—DESIGNATION OF CLASS A,
B, C, D, AND E AIRSPACE AREAS; AIR
TRAFFIC SERVICE ROUTES; AND
REPORTING POINTS
39 CFR Part 113
1. The authority citation for 14 CFR
part 71 continues to read as follows:
AGENCY:
BILLING CODE 4910–13–P
POSTAL SERVICE
■
§ 71.1
[Amended]
2. The incorporation by reference in
14 CFR 71.1 of FAA Order 7400.11D,
Airspace Designations and Reporting
Points, dated August 8, 2019, and
effective September 15, 2019, is
amended as follows:
■
Paragraph 6002 Class E Airspace
Designated as Surface Areas.
*
*
*
*
*
ANM ID E2 Coeur D’Alene, ID [Modified]
Coeur D’Alene—Pappy Boyington Field
(Lat. 47°46′28″ N, long 116°49′11″ W)
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Electronic Indicators for the Mailing of
Hazardous and Perishable Materials
Postal ServiceTM.
Proposed revision for special
standards; request for comment.
ACTION:
Authority: 49 U.S.C. 106(f), 106(g), 40103,
40113, 40120; E.O. 10854, 24 FR 9565, 3 CFR,
1959–1963 Comp., p. 389.
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That airspace within a 4.4-mile radius of
the Coeur D’Alene—Pappy Boyington Field,
and within 1.3 miles each side of the 183°
bearing extending from the 4.4-mile radius to
6 miles south of the airport, and that airspace
1.8 miles each side of the 023° bearing
extending from the 4.4-mile radius to 5 miles
northeast of the airport. This Class E airspace
is effective during the specific dates and
times established in advance by a notice to
airmen. The effective date and time will
thereafter be continuously published in the
Chart Supplement.
The Postal Service proposes
to amend the Publication 52,
Hazardous, Restricted, and Perishable
Mail (PUB 52) to provide unique
electronic indicators and to standardize
the Extra Services options for shipments
of hazardous materials and perishable
items.
DATES: Submit comments on or before
September 8, 2020.
ADDRESSES: Mail or deliver written
comments to the Manager, Product
Classification, U.S. Postal Service, 475
L’Enfant Plaza SW, Room 4446,
Washington, DC 20260–5015. If sending
comments by email, include the name
SUMMARY:
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and address of the commenter and send
to PCFederalRegister@usps.gov, with a
subject line of ‘‘Electronic Indicators’’.
Faxed comments will not be accepted.
All submitted comments and
attachments are part of the public record
and subject to disclosure. Do not
enclose any material in your comments
that you consider to be confidential or
inappropriate for public disclosure.
You may inspect and photocopy all
written comments, by appointment
only, at USPS® Headquarters Library,
475 L’Enfant Plaza SW, 11th Floor
North, Washington, DC 20260. These
records are available for review Monday
through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., by
calling 202–268–2906.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Mary Collins at (202) 251–2291, Kevin
Gunther at (202) 268–7208 or Dale
Kennedy (202) 268–6592.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Postal
Service is proposing to amend PUB 52
with the provisions below and, once
adopted, will incorporate the revised
PUB 52 by reference into part 113, as
well as make necessary edits to the
Domestic Mail Manual. You may view
the text of the proposed edits to PUB 52
at: https://pe.usps.com/.
1. Require Electronic Verification
System (eVS) and ePostage mailers to
transmit a Shipping Services File (SSF)
to the Postal Service before, or
concurrent with the tendering of
hazardous materials shipments.
2. Specify three unique Service Type
Codes (STC), each to correspond to
hazardous materials outbound
shipments via Priority Mail®, First-Class
Package Service®, Parcel Select®, Parcel
Select Lightweight®, and USPS Retail
Ground®.
3. Specify that insurance will be the
only Extra Service available with
shipments of hazardous materials. The
Postal Service intends to provide a
unique STC for each product without an
Extra Service (which would include
basic USPS tracking provided as a builtin feature of these products), purchases
of insurance less than or equal to $500,
and purchases of insurance over $500.
4. Specify four unique STCs for
Priority Mail Express® shipments to
identify those shipments where the
mailer is requesting a waived signature,
requiring a signature, purchasing
insurance less than or equal to $500, or
purchasing insurance over $500.
5. Specify three unique STCs to
correspond with hazardous materials
return services via Parcel Return Service
(PRS) Full Network, traditional PRS,
Priority Mail Return Service®, FirstClass Package Return Service®, and
Ground Return Service®, where each
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Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 152 / Thursday, August 6, 2020 / Proposed Rules
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STC will correspond to the product and
any of the Extra Service options
described above for outbound
shipments. The Postal Service also
proposes to specify unique STCs to
explicitly identify Division 6.2,
Infectious Substances returned through
Postal Service Networks using each of
these return services.
6. Provide unique Extra Service Codes
(ESC) intended to identify categories of
hazardous materials with specific
relevance to segregation, handling and
identification in Postal Service
networks.
7. Specify unique STCs and ESCs to
identify and categorize shipments of
live bees, and day-old poultry to include
Extra Services or additional fees for
these content types.
8. Provide for the optional use of
hazardous and perishable materials
electronic indicators before the end of
the 2020 calendar year and to require
their use at a later date.
Overview
Due to the rapid expansion of
eCommerce, the United States Postal
Service® has encountered a significant
increase in the number of hazardous
material shipments going through the
mail. Materials such as lithium
batteries, flammable gases, nonflammable compressed gases, and
corrosive cleaning solutions that were
typically purchased through brick and
mortar establishments are now routinely
being purchased online and shipped to
their destination. Additionally, with the
outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID–19)
pandemic, there is a new emphasis on
the transportation of infectious
substances. This increase in hazardous
material volume has brought with it a
proportional increase in instances of
improper labelling and packaging, use
of ineligible shipping services, and an
increase in safety related incidents in
Postal Service facilities. These incidents
have placed our employees, customers,
and business partners in higher risks
and resulted in millions of dollars in
losses.
The Postal Service heavily relies on
commercial cargo and passenger aircraft
to transport mail in circumstances
where the use of ground transportation
is insufficient to meet its service
standards or are otherwise operationally
or financially impracticable. With
regard to the transportation of
hazardous materials, these commercial
air carriers are subject to regulation by
the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA), and the International Civil
Aviation Organization (ICAO).
In accordance with FAA regulations,
commercial air carriers are required to
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develop and maintain a Safety
Management System (SMS). In applying
the safety risk management concept of
their SMS, air carriers conduct a
systemic analysis to identify hazards
and then develop and maintain
processes to analyze the safety risks
associated with the hazards identified.
This process requires air carriers to
acquire data with respect to its
operations, products, and services to
monitor the safety performance of their
operations and conduct and update
their risk assessments. The Postal
Service tenders mail, including
packages containing both nonhazardous and hazardous materials to
its contracted air carriers in sacks. Due
to the ‘‘sacking’’ of hazardous materials
from the Postal Service, air carriers are
often unaware of the specific hazardous
materials they are accepting and
transporting. Subsequently, without this
information, air carriers are unable to
accurately define and address the risks
associated with the mail.
Proposal
To enhance its ability to make
knowledgeable decisions regarding the
handling and disposition of hazardous
materials shipments in its networks and
better leverage the use of its mechanized
and automated systems to properly
segregate and tender these items, the
Postal Service proposes to require
mailers to identify and categorize their
hazardous materials shipments through
the use of specified electronic
indicators.
The Postal Service expects to use
these indicators to provide details on
the categories, volume and weight of the
hazardous materials contained in
packages tendered to its contracted
transportation providers, and handle
these packages in a safe and
operationally efficient manner.
The Postal Service has enhanced its
operational capability to provide piecelevel tracking and visibility through the
use of Intelligent Mail Package Barcodes
(IMpb®). These barcodes are able to be
scanned by automated processing
equipment and Intelligent Mail
scanning devices. Today, mailers are
required to encode certain information
into the barcode structure of the IMpb
through the use of STCs and to encode
additional information into a USPSApproved SSF through the use of ESCs.
As part of its package strategy, mailers
tendering packages to the Postal Service
are currently required to accurately
encode their IMpb barcodes for each
package and to supply a complete SSF
concurrent with entering their packages
into Postal Service Networks.
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Restriction of Extra Services
The Postal Service proposes to restrict
the Extra Service options available for
shipments of regulated hazardous
materials to include only insurance over
and under $500 for most mail classes or
products, and insurance over and under
$500 in addition to waiver of signature
for Priority Mail Express. The Postal
Service is proposing this restriction in
order to reduce the complexity for
mailers complying with the new
requirements, and to limit the number
of STCs needed to identify hazardous
materials in the Postal Service systems.
The Postal Service has a fairly large
number of ESCs available for use for the
purposes of these new requirements, but
is very limited in the availability of
STCs. This limitation in the number of
available STCs is a primary concern in
the proposed restriction for Extra
Services available for use with
hazardous materials shipments. The
Postal Service expects the demand for
the variety of Extra Services covered
under this proposed restriction to be
low enough for shippers of hazardous
materials to generally be of minor
concern.
eVS and ePostage Users
The generation of the flight-specific
air carrier manifests and the other
operational enhancements proposed in
this Federal Register Notice will be
possible only when the information is
included in a mailer’s SSF, and is made
available to all Postal Service systems in
a timely fashion. It is for this reason that
the Postal Service is proposing to
require all impacted mailers to transmit
an approved SSF before, or concurrent
with, the physical tendering of regulated
hazardous materials shipments to the
Postal Service regardless of the postage
payment method used. In addition to
the other postage payment methods, this
requirement would extend to mailers
using electronic verification system
(eVS).
Postal Meter and Legacy Barcode Users
To ensure electronic information for
all hazardous materials shipments are
available and concurrent with their
induction into its networks, the Postal
Service proposes to restrict shipments of
hazardous materials from mailers using
postage meters not capable of
electronically transmitting transactional
data to the Postal Service, and any other
mailers who may still be using legacy
package barcodes. These mailers are
urged to transition to newer systems or
to bring their hazardous materials to a
Postal Service retail unit for induction.
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Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 152 / Thursday, August 6, 2020 / Proposed Rules
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Service Type Codes and Extra Service
Codes for Hazardous Materials
The Postal Service proposes to specify
three unique STCs, each to correspond
to hazardous materials outbound
shipments via Priority Mail, First-Class
Package Service, Parcel Select, Parcel
Select Lightweight, and USPS Retail
Ground, and to provide a unique STC
for each product without an Extra
Service, requests for insurance less than
or equal to $500, and requests for
insurance over $500. The Postal Service
also proposes to specify three unique
STCs to correspond to hazardous
materials return services shipments via
the Parcel Return Service (PRS) Full
Network, traditional PRS, Priority Mail
Return Service, First-Class Package
Return Service, and Ground Return
Service, where each STC will
correspond to the Extra Service options
described above for outbound
shipments, and to specify unique STCs
to explicitly identify Division 6.2,
Infectious Substances returned through
Postal Service Networks using each of
these return services. The Postal Service
proposes unique STCs to identify
Division 6.2 Infectious Substances
because it believes this category of
material is the most commonly shipped
hazardous material in Postal Service
Networks via a return service and the
additional visibility into these
shipments is beneficial to Postal
Operations.
The Postal Service proposes to
provide unique ESCs to identify
specified categories of hazardous
materials with specific relevance to
segregation, handling and identification
in Postal Service networks. The Postal
Service plans to specify approximately
20 ESCs, each to identify a category of
hazardous material that is associated
with specific quantity restrictions,
packaging and markings requirements,
and for some ESCs, restrictions in air
transportation. Included among the
proposed categories to be assigned with
a specific ESC, and intended for air
transportation are:
• ID8000 Consumer Commodity
• Air-eligible Ethanol
• Excepted Quantity
• Division 5.1 Oxidizer
• Division 5.2 Organic Peroxide
• Division 6.1 Packaging Instruction 6B
Toxic Material
• Class 8 Corrosive
• Class 8 Nonspillable battery
• Class 9 Dry Ice
• Class 9 Magnetized Material
• Class 9 Lithium Battery (marked)
• Class 9 Lithium Battery (unmarked)
The Postal Service has also specified
proposed ESCs to correspond with
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categories of hazardous materials
shipments intended for ground
transportation, but will not specifically
list them in this notice.
The Postal Service expects to have
these STCs and ESCs available for
optional use by mailers before the end
of the 2020 calendar year. The Postal
Service will work with the mailing
industry to determine when the majority
of mailers will be able to prepare their
systems for the new requirements, and
will announce a mandatory use date
later this year.
STCs and ESCs for Perishable Materials
Specifically Live Animals
In addition to the electronic
indicators specific to hazardous
materials, the Postal Service is also
proposing new STCs and ESCs
applicable to shipments of live animals.
These indicators are intended to
identify and categorize mailable live
animal shipments, and provide
necessary package-level details for
perishable materials shipments when
they include special pricing
assessments. These required indicators
will be leveraged within the new
Package Platform initiative, enabling
Postal Service permit systems to
identify the shipments, and to ensure
proper and accurate automated postage
assessments and payment. These
perishable materials indicators will
specify additional charges applicable to
live animals, such as the live animal
transportation fee charged by airlines
when specific types of live animals are
shipped via air transportation, or
Special Handling-Fragile fees when
required by standards or when
optionally requested by the mailer.
Once fully implemented, use of these
STCs and ESCs will be required for all
mailings of live animals under the
categories specified.
International Shipments
Most international packages do not
include an IMpb, and will not have a
STC associated with the package.
However, during the postage payment
process for most international packages,
a SSF is generated and transmitted to
the Postal Service. The Postal Service
proposes to require mailers to include
the hazardous materials ESCs applicable
to the category of material being
shipped. In accordance with Mailing
Standards of the United States Postal
Service, International Mail Manual
(IMM®) part 135, only four categories of
hazardous materials are permitted in
international mail. Hazardous materials
permitted in international mail are
restricted to:
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• Division 6.2, Infectious Substances
(permitted only by authorization from
Product Classification, USPS®
Headquarters)
• Class 7, Radioactive Materials
• Class 9, Magnetic Materials
• Class 9,Lithium Batteries installed in
equipment (unmarked)
The Postal Service expects to provide
access to the STCs applicable to these
hazardous materials categories for use
with international mail.
Systems Enhancements
To provide greater visibility into the
quantities, weights, and categories of
hazardous materials being tendered to
its contracted air carriers, the Postal
Service plans to provide an electronic
and hardcopy (if needed) manifest to the
pilot of each flight carrying hazardous
materials in the mail. The Postal Service
expects to supply this manifest, similar
to a commercial air waybill, prior to
physically tendering the mail to the air
carrier. The manifest will supply the
details on the categories of hazardous
materials offered for transportation on
each flight. The information will be
provided from the electronic indicators
supplied by mailers under these
proposed requirements, and will be
detailed under each of the hazardous
materials categories specified for air
transportation as previously specified in
the notice. The Postal Service believes
these detailed manifests will result in
greater confidence in the safety of the
pilot, crew, and the public traveling on
passenger aircraft that also carry mail.
The manifests will also supply
hazardous materials content information
sufficient to enable air carriers to better
analyze their safety risks associated
with the mail in the development of
their SMS.
These electronic indicators will also
provide the ability of Postal Operations
to identify packages containing
hazardous materials and the categories
under which they fall. This additional
information will allow the separation or
consolidation of hazardous materials
packages as necessary to meet
operational requirements and allow
Operations to affix the applicable
markings when necessary to the
container. If this proposal is adopted,
Postal Operations will review its
systems and processes and will
investigate the feasibility of adopting
enhancements using the hazardous
materials data provided by these
proposed requirements.
If this proposal is adopted, the
revisions to postage payment platforms
may enable the Postal Service to build
in safeguards to notify its mailers when
they attempt to combine a product that
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Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 152 / Thursday, August 6, 2020 / Proposed Rules
is incompatible with the selected
category of hazardous material. For
example, the Postal Service may be able
to warn (or lock out) a mailer during the
postage payment process, when the
mailer attempts to combine an aireligible product (e.g., First-Class
Package Service or Priority Mail) with a
category of hazardous material restricted
to ground transportation only (e.g.
limited quantity ground material or
flammable solid). If this proposal is
adopted, the Postal Service plans to
review its systems to determine if such
an enhancement is possible and
practical.
Enforcement
If this proposal is adopted, the United
States Postal Inspection Service®
(USPIS®) expects universal compliance
by mailers following a reasonable period
of time to communicate the new
requirements to mailers and postage
payment providers, and for them to
make the necessary changes to their
systems. Following the implementation
period, the USPIS intends to enforce
these new requirements using its civil
penalty authority under 39 U.S.C. 3018.
Brittany Johnson,
Attorney, Federal Compliance.
[FR Doc. 2020–15773 Filed 8–5–20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE P
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND
HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services
42 CFR Part 412
[CMS–1739–P]
RIN 0938–AU24
Medicare Program; Treatment of
Medicare Part C Days in the
Calculation of a Hospital’s Medicare
Disproportionate Patient Percentage
Centers for Medicare &
Medicaid Services (CMS), HHS.
ACTION: Proposed rule.
AGENCY:
This proposed rule would
establish a policy concerning the
treatment of patient days associated
with persons enrolled in a Medicare
Part C (also known as ‘‘Medicare
Advantage’’) plan for purposes of
calculating a hospital’s disproportionate
patient percentage for cost reporting
periods starting before fiscal year (FY)
2014 in response to the ruling in Azar
v. Allina Health Services, 139 S. Ct.
1804 (June 3, 2019).
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SUMMARY:
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To be assured consideration,
comments must be received at one of
the addresses provided below, no later
than 5 p.m. on EDT on October 5, 2020.
ADDRESSES: In commenting, please refer
to file code CMS–1739–P. Because of
staff and resource limitations, we cannot
accept comments by facsimile (FAX)
transmission.
Comments, including mass comment
submissions, must be submitted in one
of the following three ways (please
choose only one of the ways listed):
1. Electronically. You may submit
electronic comments on this regulation
to https://www.regulations.gov. Follow
the ‘‘Submit a comment’’ instructions.
2. By regular mail. You may mail
written comments to the following
address ONLY: Centers for Medicare &
Medicaid Services, Department of
Health and Human Services, Attention:
CMS–1739–P, P.O. Box 8013, Baltimore,
MD 21244–8013.
Please allow sufficient time for mailed
comments to be received before the
close of the comment period.
3. By express or overnight mail. You
may send written comments to the
following address ONLY: Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services,
Department of Health and Human
Services, Attention: CMS–1739–P, Mail
Stop C4–26–05, 7500 Security
Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21244–1850.
For information on viewing public
comments, see the beginning of the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Donald Thompson (410) 786–4487.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Inspection
of Public Comments: All comments
received before the close of the
comment period are available for
viewing by the public, including any
personally identifiable or confidential
business information that is included in
a comment. We post all comments
received before the close of the
comment period on the following
website as soon as possible after they
have been received: https://
www.regulations.gov. Follow the search
instructions on that website to view
public comments.
DATES:
I. Executive Summary and Background
A. Purpose and Legal Authority
This proposed rule would create a
policy governing the treatment of days
associated with beneficiaries enrolled in
Medicare Part C for discharges occurring
prior to October 1, 2013, for the
purposes of determining the additional
Medicare payments to subsection (d)
hospitals under section 1886(d)(5)(F) of
the Social Security Act (the Act).
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47723
B. Summary of Major Provisions
Section 1886(d)(5)(F) of the Act
provides for additional Medicare
payments to subsection (d) hospitals
that serve a significantly
disproportionate number of low income
patients. The Act specifies two methods
by which a hospital may qualify for the
Medicare disproportionate share
hospital (DSH) payment adjustment.
Under the first method, hospitals that
are located in an urban area and have
100 or more beds may receive a
Medicare DSH payment adjustment if
the hospital can demonstrate that,
during its cost reporting period, more
than 30 percent of its net inpatient care
revenues are derived from State and
local government payments for care
furnished to needy patients with low
incomes. This method is commonly
referred to as the ‘‘Pickle method.’’ The
second method for qualifying for the
DSH payment adjustment, which is
more common, is based on a complex
statutory formula under which the DSH
payment adjustment is based on the
hospital’s geographic designation, the
number of beds in the hospital, and the
hospital’s disproportionate patient
percentage (DPP). A hospital’s DPP is
the sum of two fractions: The ‘‘Medicare
fraction’’ and the ‘‘Medicaid fraction.’’
The Medicare fraction (also known as
the SSI fraction or SSI ratio) is
computed by dividing the number of the
hospital’s inpatient days that are
furnished to patients who were entitled
to both Medicare Part A and
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
benefits by the hospital’s total number
of patient days furnished to patients
entitled to benefits under Medicare Part
A. The Medicaid fraction is computed
by dividing the hospital’s number of
inpatient days furnished to patients
who, for such days, were eligible for
Medicaid, but were not entitled to
benefits under Medicare Part A, by the
hospital’s total number of inpatient days
in the same period.
Because the DSH payment adjustment
is part of the inpatient prospective
payment system (IPPS), the statutory
references to ‘‘days’’ in section
1886(d)(5)(F) of the Act have been
interpreted to apply only to hospital
acute care inpatient days. Regulations
located at 42 CFR 412.106 govern the
Medicare DSH payment adjustment and
specify how the DPP is calculated as
well as how beds and patient days are
counted in determining the Medicare
DSH payment adjustment.
C. Summary of Costs and Benefits
If we adopted our proposal to include
days associated with patients enrolled
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]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 152 (Thursday, August 6, 2020)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 47720-47723]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-15773]
=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
POSTAL SERVICE
39 CFR Part 113
Electronic Indicators for the Mailing of Hazardous and Perishable
Materials
AGENCY: Postal ServiceTM.
ACTION: Proposed revision for special standards; request for comment.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: The Postal Service proposes to amend the Publication 52,
Hazardous, Restricted, and Perishable Mail (PUB 52) to provide unique
electronic indicators and to standardize the Extra Services options for
shipments of hazardous materials and perishable items.
DATES: Submit comments on or before September 8, 2020.
ADDRESSES: Mail or deliver written comments to the Manager, Product
Classification, U.S. Postal Service, 475 L'Enfant Plaza SW, Room 4446,
Washington, DC 20260-5015. If sending comments by email, include the
name and address of the commenter and send to
[email protected], with a subject line of ``Electronic
Indicators''. Faxed comments will not be accepted.
All submitted comments and attachments are part of the public
record and subject to disclosure. Do not enclose any material in your
comments that you consider to be confidential or inappropriate for
public disclosure.
You may inspect and photocopy all written comments, by appointment
only, at USPS[supreg] Headquarters Library, 475 L'Enfant Plaza SW, 11th
Floor North, Washington, DC 20260. These records are available for
review Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., by calling 202-268-
2906.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mary Collins at (202) 251-2291, Kevin
Gunther at (202) 268-7208 or Dale Kennedy (202) 268-6592.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Postal Service is proposing to amend PUB
52 with the provisions below and, once adopted, will incorporate the
revised PUB 52 by reference into part 113, as well as make necessary
edits to the Domestic Mail Manual. You may view the text of the
proposed edits to PUB 52 at: https://pe.usps.com/.
1. Require Electronic Verification System (eVS) and ePostage
mailers to transmit a Shipping Services File (SSF) to the Postal
Service before, or concurrent with the tendering of hazardous materials
shipments.
2. Specify three unique Service Type Codes (STC), each to
correspond to hazardous materials outbound shipments via Priority
Mail[supreg], First-Class Package Service[supreg], Parcel
Select[supreg], Parcel Select Lightweight[supreg], and USPS Retail
Ground[supreg].
3. Specify that insurance will be the only Extra Service available
with shipments of hazardous materials. The Postal Service intends to
provide a unique STC for each product without an Extra Service (which
would include basic USPS tracking provided as a built-in feature of
these products), purchases of insurance less than or equal to $500, and
purchases of insurance over $500.
4. Specify four unique STCs for Priority Mail Express[supreg]
shipments to identify those shipments where the mailer is requesting a
waived signature, requiring a signature, purchasing insurance less than
or equal to $500, or purchasing insurance over $500.
5. Specify three unique STCs to correspond with hazardous materials
return services via Parcel Return Service (PRS) Full Network,
traditional PRS, Priority Mail Return Service[supreg], First-Class
Package Return Service[supreg], and Ground Return Service[supreg],
where each
[[Page 47721]]
STC will correspond to the product and any of the Extra Service options
described above for outbound shipments. The Postal Service also
proposes to specify unique STCs to explicitly identify Division 6.2,
Infectious Substances returned through Postal Service Networks using
each of these return services.
6. Provide unique Extra Service Codes (ESC) intended to identify
categories of hazardous materials with specific relevance to
segregation, handling and identification in Postal Service networks.
7. Specify unique STCs and ESCs to identify and categorize
shipments of live bees, and day-old poultry to include Extra Services
or additional fees for these content types.
8. Provide for the optional use of hazardous and perishable
materials electronic indicators before the end of the 2020 calendar
year and to require their use at a later date.
Overview
Due to the rapid expansion of eCommerce, the United States Postal
Service[supreg] has encountered a significant increase in the number of
hazardous material shipments going through the mail. Materials such as
lithium batteries, flammable gases, non-flammable compressed gases, and
corrosive cleaning solutions that were typically purchased through
brick and mortar establishments are now routinely being purchased
online and shipped to their destination. Additionally, with the
outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, there is a new
emphasis on the transportation of infectious substances. This increase
in hazardous material volume has brought with it a proportional
increase in instances of improper labelling and packaging, use of
ineligible shipping services, and an increase in safety related
incidents in Postal Service facilities. These incidents have placed our
employees, customers, and business partners in higher risks and
resulted in millions of dollars in losses.
The Postal Service heavily relies on commercial cargo and passenger
aircraft to transport mail in circumstances where the use of ground
transportation is insufficient to meet its service standards or are
otherwise operationally or financially impracticable. With regard to
the transportation of hazardous materials, these commercial air
carriers are subject to regulation by the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA), and the International Civil Aviation Organization
(ICAO).
In accordance with FAA regulations, commercial air carriers are
required to develop and maintain a Safety Management System (SMS). In
applying the safety risk management concept of their SMS, air carriers
conduct a systemic analysis to identify hazards and then develop and
maintain processes to analyze the safety risks associated with the
hazards identified. This process requires air carriers to acquire data
with respect to its operations, products, and services to monitor the
safety performance of their operations and conduct and update their
risk assessments. The Postal Service tenders mail, including packages
containing both non-hazardous and hazardous materials to its contracted
air carriers in sacks. Due to the ``sacking'' of hazardous materials
from the Postal Service, air carriers are often unaware of the specific
hazardous materials they are accepting and transporting. Subsequently,
without this information, air carriers are unable to accurately define
and address the risks associated with the mail.
Proposal
To enhance its ability to make knowledgeable decisions regarding
the handling and disposition of hazardous materials shipments in its
networks and better leverage the use of its mechanized and automated
systems to properly segregate and tender these items, the Postal
Service proposes to require mailers to identify and categorize their
hazardous materials shipments through the use of specified electronic
indicators.
The Postal Service expects to use these indicators to provide
details on the categories, volume and weight of the hazardous materials
contained in packages tendered to its contracted transportation
providers, and handle these packages in a safe and operationally
efficient manner.
The Postal Service has enhanced its operational capability to
provide piece-level tracking and visibility through the use of
Intelligent Mail Package Barcodes (IMpb[supreg]). These barcodes are
able to be scanned by automated processing equipment and Intelligent
Mail scanning devices. Today, mailers are required to encode certain
information into the barcode structure of the IMpb through the use of
STCs and to encode additional information into a USPS-Approved SSF
through the use of ESCs. As part of its package strategy, mailers
tendering packages to the Postal Service are currently required to
accurately encode their IMpb barcodes for each package and to supply a
complete SSF concurrent with entering their packages into Postal
Service Networks.
Restriction of Extra Services
The Postal Service proposes to restrict the Extra Service options
available for shipments of regulated hazardous materials to include
only insurance over and under $500 for most mail classes or products,
and insurance over and under $500 in addition to waiver of signature
for Priority Mail Express. The Postal Service is proposing this
restriction in order to reduce the complexity for mailers complying
with the new requirements, and to limit the number of STCs needed to
identify hazardous materials in the Postal Service systems. The Postal
Service has a fairly large number of ESCs available for use for the
purposes of these new requirements, but is very limited in the
availability of STCs. This limitation in the number of available STCs
is a primary concern in the proposed restriction for Extra Services
available for use with hazardous materials shipments. The Postal
Service expects the demand for the variety of Extra Services covered
under this proposed restriction to be low enough for shippers of
hazardous materials to generally be of minor concern.
eVS and ePostage Users
The generation of the flight-specific air carrier manifests and the
other operational enhancements proposed in this Federal Register Notice
will be possible only when the information is included in a mailer's
SSF, and is made available to all Postal Service systems in a timely
fashion. It is for this reason that the Postal Service is proposing to
require all impacted mailers to transmit an approved SSF before, or
concurrent with, the physical tendering of regulated hazardous
materials shipments to the Postal Service regardless of the postage
payment method used. In addition to the other postage payment methods,
this requirement would extend to mailers using electronic verification
system (eVS).
Postal Meter and Legacy Barcode Users
To ensure electronic information for all hazardous materials
shipments are available and concurrent with their induction into its
networks, the Postal Service proposes to restrict shipments of
hazardous materials from mailers using postage meters not capable of
electronically transmitting transactional data to the Postal Service,
and any other mailers who may still be using legacy package barcodes.
These mailers are urged to transition to newer systems or to bring
their hazardous materials to a Postal Service retail unit for
induction.
[[Page 47722]]
Service Type Codes and Extra Service Codes for Hazardous Materials
The Postal Service proposes to specify three unique STCs, each to
correspond to hazardous materials outbound shipments via Priority Mail,
First-Class Package Service, Parcel Select, Parcel Select Lightweight,
and USPS Retail Ground, and to provide a unique STC for each product
without an Extra Service, requests for insurance less than or equal to
$500, and requests for insurance over $500. The Postal Service also
proposes to specify three unique STCs to correspond to hazardous
materials return services shipments via the Parcel Return Service (PRS)
Full Network, traditional PRS, Priority Mail Return Service, First-
Class Package Return Service, and Ground Return Service, where each STC
will correspond to the Extra Service options described above for
outbound shipments, and to specify unique STCs to explicitly identify
Division 6.2, Infectious Substances returned through Postal Service
Networks using each of these return services. The Postal Service
proposes unique STCs to identify Division 6.2 Infectious Substances
because it believes this category of material is the most commonly
shipped hazardous material in Postal Service Networks via a return
service and the additional visibility into these shipments is
beneficial to Postal Operations.
The Postal Service proposes to provide unique ESCs to identify
specified categories of hazardous materials with specific relevance to
segregation, handling and identification in Postal Service networks.
The Postal Service plans to specify approximately 20 ESCs, each to
identify a category of hazardous material that is associated with
specific quantity restrictions, packaging and markings requirements,
and for some ESCs, restrictions in air transportation. Included among
the proposed categories to be assigned with a specific ESC, and
intended for air transportation are:
ID8000 Consumer Commodity
Air-eligible Ethanol
Excepted Quantity
Division 5.1 Oxidizer
Division 5.2 Organic Peroxide
Division 6.1 Packaging Instruction 6B Toxic Material
Class 8 Corrosive
Class 8 Nonspillable battery
Class 9 Dry Ice
Class 9 Magnetized Material
Class 9 Lithium Battery (marked)
Class 9 Lithium Battery (unmarked)
The Postal Service has also specified proposed ESCs to correspond
with categories of hazardous materials shipments intended for ground
transportation, but will not specifically list them in this notice.
The Postal Service expects to have these STCs and ESCs available
for optional use by mailers before the end of the 2020 calendar year.
The Postal Service will work with the mailing industry to determine
when the majority of mailers will be able to prepare their systems for
the new requirements, and will announce a mandatory use date later this
year.
STCs and ESCs for Perishable Materials Specifically Live Animals
In addition to the electronic indicators specific to hazardous
materials, the Postal Service is also proposing new STCs and ESCs
applicable to shipments of live animals. These indicators are intended
to identify and categorize mailable live animal shipments, and provide
necessary package-level details for perishable materials shipments when
they include special pricing assessments. These required indicators
will be leveraged within the new Package Platform initiative, enabling
Postal Service permit systems to identify the shipments, and to ensure
proper and accurate automated postage assessments and payment. These
perishable materials indicators will specify additional charges
applicable to live animals, such as the live animal transportation fee
charged by airlines when specific types of live animals are shipped via
air transportation, or Special Handling-Fragile fees when required by
standards or when optionally requested by the mailer. Once fully
implemented, use of these STCs and ESCs will be required for all
mailings of live animals under the categories specified.
International Shipments
Most international packages do not include an IMpb, and will not
have a STC associated with the package. However, during the postage
payment process for most international packages, a SSF is generated and
transmitted to the Postal Service. The Postal Service proposes to
require mailers to include the hazardous materials ESCs applicable to
the category of material being shipped. In accordance with Mailing
Standards of the United States Postal Service, International Mail
Manual (IMM[supreg]) part 135, only four categories of hazardous
materials are permitted in international mail. Hazardous materials
permitted in international mail are restricted to:
Division 6.2, Infectious Substances (permitted only by
authorization from Product Classification, USPS[supreg] Headquarters)
Class 7, Radioactive Materials
Class 9, Magnetic Materials
Class 9,Lithium Batteries installed in equipment (unmarked)
The Postal Service expects to provide access to the STCs applicable
to these hazardous materials categories for use with international
mail.
Systems Enhancements
To provide greater visibility into the quantities, weights, and
categories of hazardous materials being tendered to its contracted air
carriers, the Postal Service plans to provide an electronic and
hardcopy (if needed) manifest to the pilot of each flight carrying
hazardous materials in the mail. The Postal Service expects to supply
this manifest, similar to a commercial air waybill, prior to physically
tendering the mail to the air carrier. The manifest will supply the
details on the categories of hazardous materials offered for
transportation on each flight. The information will be provided from
the electronic indicators supplied by mailers under these proposed
requirements, and will be detailed under each of the hazardous
materials categories specified for air transportation as previously
specified in the notice. The Postal Service believes these detailed
manifests will result in greater confidence in the safety of the pilot,
crew, and the public traveling on passenger aircraft that also carry
mail. The manifests will also supply hazardous materials content
information sufficient to enable air carriers to better analyze their
safety risks associated with the mail in the development of their SMS.
These electronic indicators will also provide the ability of Postal
Operations to identify packages containing hazardous materials and the
categories under which they fall. This additional information will
allow the separation or consolidation of hazardous materials packages
as necessary to meet operational requirements and allow Operations to
affix the applicable markings when necessary to the container. If this
proposal is adopted, Postal Operations will review its systems and
processes and will investigate the feasibility of adopting enhancements
using the hazardous materials data provided by these proposed
requirements.
If this proposal is adopted, the revisions to postage payment
platforms may enable the Postal Service to build in safeguards to
notify its mailers when they attempt to combine a product that
[[Page 47723]]
is incompatible with the selected category of hazardous material. For
example, the Postal Service may be able to warn (or lock out) a mailer
during the postage payment process, when the mailer attempts to combine
an air-eligible product (e.g., First-Class Package Service or Priority
Mail) with a category of hazardous material restricted to ground
transportation only (e.g. limited quantity ground material or flammable
solid). If this proposal is adopted, the Postal Service plans to review
its systems to determine if such an enhancement is possible and
practical.
Enforcement
If this proposal is adopted, the United States Postal Inspection
Service[supreg] (USPIS[supreg]) expects universal compliance by mailers
following a reasonable period of time to communicate the new
requirements to mailers and postage payment providers, and for them to
make the necessary changes to their systems. Following the
implementation period, the USPIS intends to enforce these new
requirements using its civil penalty authority under 39 U.S.C. 3018.
Brittany Johnson,
Attorney, Federal Compliance.
[FR Doc. 2020-15773 Filed 8-5-20; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE P
