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Today’s blog post is going to make you aware of a service the USPS offers just in case you weren’t aware it was an option.

It’s called the ACS Service. Here’s what it does in a nutshell…

You send out a direct mail campaign and some of the mail pieces don’t get delivered because the recipient recently moved. Well, with the ACS Service, the USPS will email you an electronic spreadsheet with the new addresses of these new movers.

For First-Class mail, your mail will get forwarded to the new addresses…for Standard mail, they won’t…but either way, you’ll receive an electronic spreadsheet of new addresses to easily update your database with.

The cost for this service varies. Furthermore, the customer/mailer — not the print/mail vendor — has to set it up. Reason being, ACS is tied to the BRE that gets returned with orders…and this bulk permit is usually in the customer or mailer’s name.

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We want to expand on a few points so our cost-saving suggestions are complete. Please watch the above video before continuing so our points below make sense.

In the video, we spoke about cost-effective solutions for cutting postage on booklet or catalog type mailers. We mentioned the postage cost savings could be as high as $0.25 per piece. This savings does not include the additional costs to produce the options we’ve noted in the video.

For example, on the slim-jim piece, you will incur the cost of the (2) wafer seals required to mail at letter automation rates which is usually around $10.00/m. Another factor in moving from the full-size mailer to the slim-jim is the decrease in the amount of creative real estate. You will generally need to add 4 to 8 pages to make up for this lost space. Despite these two additional costs, the savings are huge because of how much postage you’re cutting.

The other option we spoke about is printing a full-size mailer but refolding (or soft-folding) the piece to 8.5 x 5.5. There are two additional costs associated with this as well.

First is the cost to refold the piece which generally runs about $500 depending on the equipment of your printer. The second is the cost to apply (2) wafer seals to close the piece and qualify for letter automation rates. As was the case above, even with these two factors considered, the cost savings are huge.

On a side note, the post office is reevaluating the use of the slim-jim format to make it run better on their letter sorting equipment. As it stands right now, many of the slim-jim pieces do not run well on their equipment and, as a result, have to be either hand sorted or run on their flat sorting equipment.

Stay tuned for an update on this ruling.

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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.

Download the PDF Here.

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.

Drop shipping is the act of sending qualified mail to either a BMC or SCF surpassing your local post office as the point of entry. This results in postal cost savings.

The sample analysis below shows the difference of postage between a mailing being shipped local entry (your local post office) and the same mailing going out as a drop shipment (drop shipping). 

As you can see, the postage savings can be pretty substantial.  We chose a job that was prepared and mailed as a drop shipment for this analysis.

Drop shipment:                            Local Entry:

Quantity: 1,250,026 pieces              Quantity: 1,250,026 pieces

Drop ship penetration                      Drop ship penetration

BMC: 52.82%                                 BMC: 0%

SCF: 43.09%                                 SCF: 0%

Local: 4.09%                                 Local: 100%

Postage: $240,022.15                     Postage: $284,433.04

This particular mailing has a postage savings of $44,410.89 less freight preparation and fuel surcharge.  In most cases these costs remain less than half of the postal savings.

If you have any questions about drop shipping, please contact Matt Cote: matt (at) ballantine.com

One of the areas that we take great advantage of here at Ballantine is our local Postal Design Specialist.

These employees of the USPS are given the task of making a mail piece design flow through the postal system with no problems such as machine jam-ups or not qualifying for the automated mail postage rate.

The ideal time to take advantage of them is when you’re in the early design stages of your project. You can send them a mock-up of your mail piece and they will respond quickly with suggestions.

All of their information is based on the Domestic Mail Manual — actual written rules that all mailers must follow. If not followed, the consequences could be very expensive.

For example, if the post office deems your letter size mailer as non-machinable, the surcharge could be as high as $0.25 per piece.

For information on a Postal Design Specialist nearest you, contact the USPS.

One of the main advantages of the DPV service is that it pinpoints if a record is a valid USPS delivery destination. DPV’s other half, the CASS certification service, can only tell you if the address falls within a range. For example, if you have 123 Main Street, CASS can confirm that it falls within a range of 1-200 Main Street but doesn’t confirm that it’s a valid USPS delivery destination.

But Delivery Point Validation does.

Ultimately, DPV is important because the more we can do to help make the post office more efficient, the better off all direct mail marketers will be.