You may have been one of the many mailers who breathed a sigh of relief when the USPS postponed their requirement that full-service intelligent barcodes be used on all mail pieces, trays, sacks and container placards by January, 2014 in order to qualify for automation rates. But even though full-service is not currently required, the fact that you can track every individual piece of mail with full-service’s unique sequence numbers may make upgrading worthwhile.
Many mailers don’t give much thought to mail tracking until there’s a problem, and then being able to access accurate tracking information can be priceless. If you’ve been in the direct mail business for long, you probably have personal horror stories about having your mailing process questioned when a mailing wasn’t generating the returns others expected.
By upgrading to full-service intelligent mail, you’ll be able to confirm through the USPS’s Start The Clock program when each piece of mail entered the mail stream. If you take advantage of MailSmart Logistics’ free mail tracking, you’ll even be able to report when each piece of mail reached the post office closest to its delivery address. Being able to report that at least 92.8% of the mail has been delivered to date resolves mailing process questions quite effectively.
Mail tracking can be particularly useful when the unexpected happens. For example, when a mail truck went off the road in a Minnesota snowstorm, we were able to tell our clients exactly which pieces of mail had been lost. Not only did this allow our clients to resend those pieces if they wanted to, but they were able to use our data to receive insurance compensation for the missing mail.
One additional advantage of upgrading to full-service intelligent mail is that the USPS drops your postal rates by one-tenth of a cent per piece for standard mail and three-tenths for 1st class. While this reduction may eventually go away, you might as well use this savings while it lasts to stretch tight direct mail budgets.
If you’d like to learn more about how MailSmart Logistics can help you cut your postal costs, please call (443) 539-2640 or let us know when a good time to call you would be.
MailSmart Logistics provides worry-free shipping at remarkably-low postal rates–
You’re going to love working with MailSmart Logistics!
