SECTION 4. CRITERIA FOR

DESIGNATION

The following criteria must be satisfied for each type of delivery service for which designation is sought.

.01 The delivery service offered must be available to the general public.

.02 The delivery service offered must be at least as timely and reliable on a regular basis as United States First-Class Mail.

.03 The delivery service offered must provide for the recording or marking of the date on which an item was given to the PDS for delivery (the ‘‘received date’’) under one of the following methods.

(1) The PDS must record electronically to its data base (kept in the regular course of its business) the received date and enter into, and comply with, a written agreement with the Service that addresses the period for which such data must be maintained and the terms and conditions under which the Service will be provided with such data.

(2) The PDS must indelibly mark the received date on the cover of the item

so that it is readable by the human eye without mechanical assistance. A method does not qualify if only the sender or the sender’s agent (instead of the PDS) marks the received date.

.04 The delivery service offered must provide for delivery to all street addresses within the United States to which documents and payments subject to § 7502 must be sent (e.g., all Service offices and the United States Tax Court).

.05 The delivery service offered must have established security procedures that prevent unauthorized access to the contents of an item by any person (e.g., employees, contractors/agents, and third parties).

.06 The name of the PDS and the type of delivery service being used must always be clearly identified on each item delivered by the PDS to an office described in § 7502.

.07 The PDS must comply with all requirements of the Private Express Statutes (18 U.S.C. §§ 1693–1699 and 39 U.S.C. §§ 601– 606). (See generally 39 C.F.R. Parts 310 and 320.)