![]() Zero staff time required, and your postage meter will complete the job in under half an hour Weigh 600 pieces of mail one by one and write down the required amount of postageĥ minutes to load a semi or fully-automated postage meter tray with mail – it will do the restĪpply the appropriate number of stamps to every piece of mail Topping up your postage balance online takes seconds Make a round trip to the post office to buy stamps Using data from the National Small Business Poll, we estimated how much time an average small business that sends 600 pieces of mail each month would save with the help of a postage meter: Action To answer that question, we thought it would be useful to compare how long it takes to add postage to mail by hand vs with a postage meter. Mailing automation software from the ‘big three’ suppliers (Pitney Bowes, FP and Quadient) is generally well-supported. Generally speaking, postage meter suppliers cover the costs of repairing or replacing faulty units. For example, for how long will they continue to release free bug fixes and software updates? And how easy is the software to use? If it’s got a steep learning curve or a confusing design, it could do more harm than good… The Bottom Line But you should still do your due diligence to find out if that’s really the case. On paper, they all claim to make your mailroom even more efficient. Pitney Bowes, FP, Quadient and Data-Pac all offer mailing automation software. The main thing you want to know is, does your supplier send repair technicians to you, or do you have to send faulty units back to them for repairs? What kinds of hardware damage does their warranty cover, and what kinds of insurance do they offer? Software Support All the more reason to do your research and thrash things out fully with suppliers before committing to anything. In theory, that means they’re responsible for all routine maintenance and repair work.īut in practice? It depends on the specific terms of your lease. When you lease a postage meter, the equipment still belongs to your supplier. Plus, once you’ve prepared it, the USPS can collect it straight from your office or warehouse. Using a postage meter to weigh and stamp your mail saves you having to take it to the post office. If you’re considering leasing a postage meter, all you need to know at this point is that these services are great for sending large, heavy and/or urgent packages. Package Services/USPS Retail Ground (for less urgent or oversized packages, delivery in two to five days from $8.50 or you can calculate exact postage price).Media Mail (for discs, audio, video, delivery in two to eight business days).First Class Package (delivery in two to five days).Priority Mail (delivery in one to three business days).Priority Mail Express (delivery next day or two days).To send letters exceeding these size, weight or speed criteria, you’ll need a different service. Here’s a table of all the factors you'd need to qualify for First Class mail: USPS postage rates vary according to (1) package dimensions, (2) weight, (3) distance sent and (4) shipping speed. You need a permit to use a postage meter for commercial mailing, however, there is no application fee for this. So you should choose one post office and stick to it for the year. For every class of mail you wish to send in bulk from a particular post office, you will need to pay an annual fee of $265. You should, however, be aware of several fees that apply if you want to take advantage of Commercial Rates. So, if you sign a 36 month lease when the rate is 60¢ for a 1oz letter, USPS postage rate hikes during your contract won’t affect you. This means that your supplier will freeze metered postage rates at their current level when you sign the lease. Rate Protection GuaranteesĪs if that wasn’t good enough, you can sweet talk some postage meter companies into offering rate protection guarantees. With five-digit presorting, postage is 24% cheaper than regular First Class mail. The good news is that any good mid-level postage meter can presort everything for you. But for advertising mail (known as USPS Marketing Mail), the minimum is only 200 pieces. Presorted First Class batches need to contain at least 500 pieces. The bad news is that to qualify for the lowest rates, you need to sort your mail quite carefully. Now, when it comes to presorted mail, there’s bad news, good news, and really good news. To qualify for these rates, you’ll need to presort your mail before passing it over to the USPS for delivery. An even cheaper set of Commercial Rates are available for businesses that send mail in bulk. That’s already a 4% reduction on your direct mail costs. If you used a postage meter to process the same letter, you’d pay just 60¢. As we mentioned earlier, a first class stamp for a letter weighing 1oz costs 63¢ (the retail rate).
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