Prepare for Postal Rate Increase

As the postal rate increases take effect this month, Leo Raymond, director of postal affairs for the Mailing & Fulfillment Service Association, provides some insights for in-plants in the next issue of IPG.

The increases, he notes, are a sign that the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has finally acknowledged that different mail shapes have different processing costs, enable different levels of processing efficiency and so deserve to be charged different postage rates.

Three overarching themes pervade the rate case:

• Shape matters

• Address and barcode quality matter

• The best prices are offered to the most efficient mail

Whether or not in-plants handle mail processing, they should work with their customers to help them understand the postage consequences of designing mail pieces whose size and weight, and especially their shape, may be less than ideal to enable efficient postal processing.

Can small runs be combined or mailing lists resegmented to improve presort density, enable drop shipment or simply improve production? Consider address quality and what you could do to help clients increase the accuracy and currency of their address lists.