Office Document Strategies Blog

The Guts of Your Postage Meter May Be Costing You Big $'s!

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Mon, Feb 10, 2020 @ 15:02 PM

Hidden within your postage meter contract there may be clauses which are costing you big dollars and you may not be noticing.

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Topics: Postage meter, postage rates, mailing equipment, postage machine

Professional Mail Room With FP Postbase 130.130D

Posted by Joanna Wallace on Thu, Jan 18, 2018 @ 14:01 PM

Mail room operations can be affected by many things but probably the most challenging for busy ones is the handling of mail runs which has various sizes and weights of items.

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Topics: Postage meter, mailing equipment, Mailing, Postage, mailing machines, meter rentals, postage machine

Folder Inserters | Selecting The Right Fit

Posted by Joanna Wallace on Wed, Mar 22, 2017 @ 07:03 AM

Folder Inserters are a category of mailing equipment that too many potential users either don't know about or don't understand.  For organizations with a need for repeated mailings in medium to large volumes they can be a substantial time and cost saving solution. 

Here's a quick summary of some of the things to consider when looking them over.  

Important Questions

How many different jobs am I going to need to set up for?

What is the highest amount of sheets I am going to insert into one envelope?

  • I need to insert adverts that are half page like a coupon (this will require a 2nd feeder called an insert feeder tray) - put it on your want list
  • I need to insert a second full sheet advert after perhaps an invoice (this will require a 2nd full feeder tray) - Perhaps a third as well
  • My confidential invoices are more than one page what are my choices here as to folding and inserting?
    • Check – Is your printer OMR or BCR (optical mark recognition) capable? (This is the process of capturing human-marked data these barcodes can tell the folder inserter how many pages need to be put together for the one envelope.) Very important for confidentiality and security especially when pages are various sizes coming from different feeders. If this is the case you need to make sure the folder inserter is “OMR” capable as well. You also want to ask how the folder inserter “COLLATES” (In printing, the term Collate refers to the gathering and arranging of individual sheets or other printed components into a pre-determined sequence. Basically, Collating creates consistent, logical sets from multiple parts.)  This means the pages are pulled separately then folded in order together. You also want to make sure your adverts can get nested within or folded on their own.
    • If you manually separate your invoices you may want to staple together to avoid wrong information going into an envelope so your question is, will the folder inserter take “STAPLES?”

I have several different size envelopes and the address location varies -How does this work?

  • How many different folds can the folder do that will assure the address is shown properly in the envelope window
  • Make sure you understand what machineable envelopes are so you don’t create an issue when folding and inserting (example the dreaded invitation style envelopes)= non machineable
  • How user friendly is the machine to be able to set this up if a job changes or does that require a service call.
  • As a vendor, (Leppert Business Systems), we always request samples to test all the client's materials to make sure they meet the unit's specifications. This also stops clients from finding out after the fact the machine can’t do the job it was bought to do.

How do I figure out how robust a machine I need?

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Topics: mailing equipment, Mailing

Your 3 Choices of Canadian Postage Meter Companies

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Fri, Aug 26, 2016 @ 00:08 AM

FrancoTyp Postalia

Neopost (now called Quadient)

And the oldest Pitney Bowes

Many Canadian businesses don't realize that they have a choice of postage meter companies when they are looking to rent a postage machine.

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Topics: Postage meter, postage rates, mailing equipment, meter rentals, postage machine

Buying a Postage Meter In Canada - Three Choices

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Fri, Aug 26, 2016 @ 00:08 AM

 

If you are buying or renting a postage meter in Canada you essentially have three choices of manufacturer.  Many people think that there is only one meter rental company authorized to sell postage equipment in Canada.  In fact there are three companies who are the manufacturers of equipment and who have approval from Canada Post for providing postage meters.  These companies in alphabetical order are:  Francotyp-Postalia Canada, Neopost Canada and Pitney Bowes Canada.

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Topics: Postage meter, postage rates, mailing equipment, Mailing, Postage, mailing machines, postage machines, meter rentals, postage machine

Guide To Postage Meters Canada |Contract Terms 2015

Posted by Joanna Wallace on Wed, Oct 21, 2015 @ 08:10 AM

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Topics: Postage meter, mailing equipment, Mailing, Postage

Canada Post Shows Annual Profit of $299 Million

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, May 13, 2015 @ 08:05 AM

In 2014 Canada Post announced a five part restructuring plan designed to turn around its money losing operations.  The plan indicated that with the steps outlined Canada Post would be profitable within three years.  In fact, based upon the 2014 annual report the corporation moved much more quickly to accomplishing its profitability goals earning an operating profit of $299 million dollars.  Revenue also increased by just under $420 million for a 5.5% change.  

These are pretty significant numbers and upon review they may not be quite as surprising as first thought.  The news is not all rosy however.  Volumes in some areas, especially lettermail continued to drop, 5.4% and this drop was higher than in the previous year.  Transaction mail declined by 6.1% per address indicating that alternative methods are continuing to replace the mailed invoice for many activities.  Think of the push you receive from your personal as well as business vendors for you to accept electronic invoicing.  This is a trend which continues to grow.

On the good side the volume of domestic parcels increased by 9.2%.  One potential for this growth is an increase in online purchasing by consumers resulting more parcel deliveries being necessary in the marketplace. "Online shopping is growing our business from a position of strength," is how this phenomenon is described in the report.  It is an area which is anticipated to grow even though the parcel business is very competitive.

One reason there was growth in both revenues and profit was the change in the pricing structure for lettermail which was introduced in 2014.  Using a tiered pricing structure which provided for a lower price for those using postage meters and running higher volumes of mail when compared to occasional users buying single stamps, a three tiered price was introduced.  The base cost of a single first class stamp rose significantly over the 2013 level.  It is possible that this new higher cost aggravated the move away from mail to other forms of communication for low volume users.  It may also have affected the commercial use of mail as well.  Combined they probably account for a major portion of the drop in lettermail volume but potentially had a lower effect on the revenue associated since the per piece cost was higher.

Other changes in the plan are still being seen as controversial as Canada Post moves to end the final third of home delivery that was made to individual residences.  There is a significant back lash against this decision, including potential court action in some jurisdictions.  Just check on the stories from the City of Hamilton about the challenges to Canada Post's installation of new 'super boxes' to get some sense of the frustration.  Canada Post indicates that as the market changes there is a real need for them to reduce the costs of individual mail delivery and that the elimination of individual home delivery is one step in this fight.  Of course the reduction in workforce that is needed to be able to do this delivery will be a big help in meeting Canada Post's long term profitability goals.

Some commentators think that with the fast turn around in profits shown in 2014 Canada Post could move away from some of the more controversial parts of their plan but at this point there is not much indication this will happen.   According to one commentator the lettermail windfall in 2014 amounted to $238 million in extra revenue, more than half of the total increase realized.

No matter what your take on the 2014 results it is evident that Canada Post is making changes and that postal delivery in Canada is going to be different than it ever has been before.  Some of these differences are going to be great for most users and some may not.  

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Topics: mailing equipment, Mailing, mailing machines

In The Market For A Postage Meter. What You Need To Know.

Posted by Joanna Wallace on Wed, Nov 26, 2014 @ 08:11 AM

Here is the poop you need to know before you scoop!

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Topics: Postage meter, postage rates, technology tools, e-mail, mailing equipment, workflow processes, Mailing, Postage, mailing machines, postage machines, total cost of operation, running costs, postage rate 2014, postage rate 2015

Pitney Bowes MFP Line Sale To Konica Changes The Game

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Oct 29, 2014 @ 08:10 AM

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Topics: mailing equipment, Multifunction Printer, MFP, Copier

There's Room For Direct Mail In Your Marketing | Postage Rates Help

Posted by Lee Kirkby on Wed, Jun 11, 2014 @ 08:06 AM

In our highly connected world we can think that marketing and promotion is an electronic process exclusively.  Of course then we open our mail box and check the promotions which come in and we look at the print flyers which are directed through newspaper and door delivery.  At times we don't see that the volume of both have changed at all.

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Topics: Postage meter, postage rates, e-mail, mailing equipment