Six Ways to Keep the Yikes! Out of the Postal Rate Hike

December 2006 By Tracy A. Gill

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Reducing weight is not always the only way to save however, asserts Schick. Flats mailers may want to increase the weight of their package to meet new automation requirements and not have damage done to the piece during processing, he points out.

• Size things up. “I’m advising a lot of clients to change their sizing [because] the postal rate case is so focused on size,” states Makofsky, citing as an example one client who planned to mail a 6-1/2˝ x 9-1/2˝ envelope package, but trimmed it back to a 6˝ x 9˝ to move from flat to letter rates for a savings of about 20 cents per piece. “We are hoping our clients can convert parcels to flats and flats to letters,” explains Makofsky. “That’s the biggest way they can reduce their exposure.

Again, reducing size is not the only option; Schick points out that savings also can be had by increasing trim size, if that will help the mailing qualify for co-mailing and the discounts that delivers. “We try to push everyone to comail if they qualify,” says Schick, who adds that although flats mailers do have the opportunity to save money by downsizing, “there’s also a lot of hurdles, not the least of which is what that might to do response rates.” With five or six months to go before the new rates are in effect, mailers still have time to test whether these are viable options.

• Design for automation. In addition to higher increases than their letter class brethren, flats mailers who cannot or do not want to test out of the format face another challenge with this new rate case: the new nonmachinable flats class. Mailings that fall into this class will see a huge rate hike, ranging from 75 percent to more than 150 percent. In this scenario, it becomes much more important to design for automation than ever before. Two key things to watch out for here are the flexibility and thickness of a package. “There are two new rules coming into play. One is the flexibility standard, where the USPS won’t give you automation discounts if the piece is rigid. The other is that packages must be of uniform thickness,” says Makofsky, adding that although language regarding the thickness guideline still is vague, it seems it mainly will hinder the use of “lumpy mail” tactics, such as pen or pin freemiums, and envelopes with undersized components. His advice? Learn the rules, work on solutions and have them OK’d by a USPS Mailpiece Design Analyst prior to production.

• Learn the rules. This may not seem like a real action item, but taking advantage of these cost savings requires that everyone involved in the development of a mail piece be fully versed on postal regulations. “[Mailers] need to understand better what the design of the mail piece can do to them when it comes time to be accepted as mail. Because of the new requirements for certain types of mail in the shape-based rate structure, if you make a mistake in designing the piece and nobody catches it, it can make a huge impact on the rate you thought you were going to pay versus what you are going to pay,” explains Schick. Makofsky agrees, pointing out that getting buy-in across all departments—from creative to upper management—regarding what needs to be done to meet postal requirements and internal postal goals is a key step that does not happen often enough—but can be vital to improving a company’s bottom line.

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