What is commingling and why should you be using it?
Commingling has been around for many years and until now was mainly used as a way for smaller mailers to presort their mail. The reason for its increased popularity is due to the recent rate changes for BMC and SCF discounts. As a result, it’s now more financially attractive for most mailers to commingle their mail.
So to define commingling: it’s the act of taking your direct mail and sorting it with other company’s mail to qualify for postage discounts.
In theory, this can apply to nationwide mailings of all sizes, but usually really large mailings (1 million plus pieces) already have a significant portion of their mailing going to the BMC or SCF level. The portion that isn’t, however, would benefit from commingling.
The way it works is this:
You take your mail file and sort it into zip code sequence. Then the mail house will image only the bar code and address information on to the addressing panel. There is no Optional Endorsement Line imaged.
Your vendor will then pick up the mail and put it on sorting equipment that takes each individual piece of mail and sorts it to either the BMC or SCF level based on what they’ve received from other mailers. As a result, this gives you deeper postal penetration and discounts.
Furthermore, here’s a PDF that gives you some visual examples of how commingling affects delivery.
And we also recommend you watch our 5-minute commingling video.
If you aren’t currently commingling your mail, it’s definitely worth speaking with your print and mail vendor because the postage savings can be substantial.
If you’d like to speak to us about what your postage rate would be using commingling, please contact Matt Cote: 973-305-1500 x207 or matt (at) ballantine.com.
5 comments ↓
Hello, This is Andrew Winnard at Smith Litho in Rockville, MD. We are a high volume printer that does a lot of mailing. Most of what we do is inline inkjetting. I have a few questions.
What are the advantages of commingling and will it meet our demands as a high volume printer?
What volume of mail would be needed to begin to see postage savings?
How much would a service like this run?
Base on a package quote that would:
Convert 1 file, cass certify, NCOA Process, inkjet folded #10 letter, insert 5 into window envelope, live stamp and mail.
125,000
250,000
500,000
1,000,000
Hi Andrew, the benefits of commingling are reduced postage costs and quicker delivery…but this is not always the case…you have to analyze the specifics of each mailing to see what makes the most sense.
As far as how much volume of mail would be needed…this is something you’d have to work out with your commingler.
We have a contract with our commingler that guarantees them a specific volume of mail and they in turn guarantee us a reduced postage rate which we pass onto our clients.
Hope this helps.
Hi,
Can most comminglers handle regulation size postcards (4.25 x 6)? Or is this too small for the machines?
Thanks.
Good question Tom. Commingling is for standard, letter rate mail. 4.25×6 postcards mail out at first class, postcard rate.
If you did a 6×9 or 6×11 postcard, however, then yes you would commingle.
[...] As a result, we created this 5-minute video to give you the information you might need…this is in addition to our previous commingling post. [...]
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