- Rose Rivera
- July 16, 2024
PilotoMail has been prioritizing compliance from day one. This focus on compliance is even more relevant now, as the US Postal Service’s recent changes to Commercial Mail Receiving Agency (CMRA) regulations have made compliance a hot topic for the past year.
What is Compliance?
A bit lost? Let’s start by defining compliance. For US-based operators and coworking space owners, compliance is the series of rules and regulations that you follow to be in good standing with the law—in this case, the US Postal Service. When you handle other people’s mail, you are serving as a CMRA, and you need to be certified as one to be compliant.
It’s a lot of work, particularly with the new changes in rules and regulations that require a mail operator to manually input every renter’s credentials and signed PS 1583 form into the Customer Registration Database (CRD) of the US Postal Service.
PilotoMail's Compliance Solutions
Our main goal has always been about making life easier for our mail operators and using their time wisely. And, because we are both providers and coworking operators, we continue to look for new solutions and ways to make our product better.
Here’s how PilotoMail is changing the compliance game:
As a CMRA, USPS policy requires all customers (both existing and new) to complete the new PS 1583 Form. This includes attaching two forms of identification, one containing a photo and the other featuring an address. The IDs must then be verified by you, the CMRA Agent. The IDs must also meet the following requirements:
- IDs must be current. Expired IDs are not accepted.
- The home address on the form must match the address on one of the IDs provided.
- Authorized mail recipients must also submit IDs under the same process.
- If the address on the form doesn’t match the address on the ID, the CMRA must deny the application.
- USPS also has a list of acceptable IDs
Easy PS 1583 Forms
Since each of your customers must fill out the new PS 1583 Form, PilotoMail made onboarding easy for them with a conversational, user-friendly form to capture their information — and make sure you stay 100% compliant.
How? The Compliance Assistant asks all the right questions and fills out the PS 1583 form automatically. To ensure the information uploaded is accurate, PilotoMail added a feature that checks and matches the address. This reduces mistakes, simplifies the process for new customers, and requires fewer follow-ups.
The Compliance Assistant also completes and updates the PS 1583 form with:
- Dates for PMB Opened & Closed
- Court-ordered protected individuals
- Re-mail address and email address that must be updated with each termination
- IDs for Authorized Mail Recipients
- Updated addresses
- Updated IDs
Uploading and Verifying Customers’ Identities
When filling out PS 1583 Form with PilotoMail’s Compliance Assistant, your customer must provide two IDs to verify their identity. The Assistant will compare the customer’s selfie with their photo ID using advanced biometric data to check if your mailbox renter is really them. This process, which checks IDs against government databases, ensures that only verified individuals can receive mail, significantly reducing the risk of identity fraud. It takes less than 5 minutes and saves you from manually reviewing information.
Continuous Compliance Monitoring/Maintenance
Another important task required by USPS is making sure your customers’ PS 1583 forms and IDs are current (which means that IDs are not expired, addresses are current, etc.). If you’re doing this by hand, it means regularly checking and updating these docs for all your mailboxes and their renters.
PilotoMail’s new Watchtower feature maintains and updates customers’ PS 1583 forms to ensure they are always current and meet regulatory requirements. Customers are alerted when their IDs are nearing expiration, and any changes in address information are automatically updated on the forms. Additionally, when members invite new authorized mail recipients, they go through the same identity validation process, keeping all documentation up to date.
Heads up – if you don’t update your customers’ IDs regularly and ensure they are current, you won’t be compliant as a CMRA). Another important requirement to comply as a CMRA is uploading all your customers’ forms and IDs into the USPS Customer Registration Database (CRD). If an ID has expired, the CRD won’t accept it, which means you must be diligent about checking the expiration dates and updating the records.
The Bottom Line
CMRAs found not to be operating within Postal Service regulations will be suspended from authorization to act as a CMRA until compliant. If compliance is not achieved within 30 days, the Postal Service may terminate the CMRA’s designation to accept mail on behalf of others. For coworking spaces and Virtual Office Providers, this could translate into loss of membership revenue. If you are found to be non-compliant and your operations as a CMRA get revoked you cannot receive mail for any of your members at your location.
If you’re a PilotoMail user, you have access to all these new features, ensuring seamless compliance, and peace of mind. For those who aren’t yet part of our community, now is the perfect time to make the switch. Book a demo with us to get started and see how PilotoMail can transform your mail management operations, keeping you compliant and efficient.
About PilotoMail
PilotoMail is a mail management platform that creates recurring revenue streams for mailrooms through postal mail handling automation, and virtual mailboxes for the remote workforce. Property managers, coworking spaces, mail centers & registered agents can handle large volumes of mail efficiently, comply with all postal regulations, and increase revenue from their existing footprint effortlessly.