Let the Post Office Help Speed Processing

Today, Feb 2004 by Gerardi, Liz

Coordinating the services of the United States Postal Service (USPS) with your remittance processing operation can save processing time, which can mean the difference between same-day and next-day deposits. It also can save labor costs and eliminate numerous management headaches.

Many remittance-processing businesses are unaware of the assistance the U.S. Postal Service offers to speed the mail to their shops. Many businesses have mail delivered directly to their doors where the mammoth task of mail sorting begins. However, the U.S. Postal Service can relieve some of the time-consuming and labor-intense prep work of mail handling. This can make the difference between same-day and next-day deposits.

A number of tools and tactics are available to get your mail to, through, and out of the post office in the most efticient manner possible. Here are a few suggestions taken irom the best practices of several large processors.

SUCCESS BY DESIGN

Help the post office deliver your mail as quickly as possible. When you add or revamp check stubs and envelopes, get the Postal Service involved up front, during the initial design phase. The Postal Service has recommendations for everything from the weight of the paper and size of the envelope, to the size of the type font and the line spacing-every detail necessary for ensuring a piece will be handled efficiently by today's postal equipment.

You can also take advantage of the USPS's design review service. The Postal Service has Mailpiece Design Analysts (MDA) located throughout the country that you can consult to ensure your envelope qualifies for the class of mail and postage rate you want. To find out where the MDA serving your area is located, contact your local post office or check the following Web site: hiip://pe.usps.gov/mpdesign/mpdfr_mda_intro.htm. Since postal capabilities continue to evolve, have your MDA examine your mailing pieces every year to take advantage of any new developments.

LET THE POSTAL SERVICE DO THE PRESORTING

To help the Postal Service do as much of the presorting as possible, you need to use the best and most up-to-date mail sorting practices available. Obviously, using pre-printed envelopes with barcodes for routing speeds the mail. Less obvious is using unique Zip Codes, multiple Post Office Boxes, colored envelopes, and window envelops with barcodes on the inside coupon, as well as using the Postal Service's new Confirm Service which uses PLANET (Postal Alpha Numeric Encoding Technique) Code technology to anticipate incoming mail volumes.

Today, barcoding is a staple of the postal system. It lets your mail be handled by machine, rather than hand sorted, which can make a significant difference in your overall "mail time." %ur local post office can give you the exact barcode format to use for each of your postal addresses.

Putting barcodes on your coupons and using window envelopes is another way to shortcut the presorting function. This method lets you change the sort for a particular bill or a particular customer, based on specific criteria. For example, an overdue life insurance payment could be sent to a separate Post Office Box that gets top priority. Use this technique to avoid costly and unnecessary cancellations and to expedite large payments.

If your mail volume is large enough, you could qualify for a unique Zip Code. With a unique Zip Code, your mail is separated at the earliest point in the Postal Service's workflow, which, again, speeds delivery. However, you must meet certain volume requirements before the Postal Service will issue you your own Zip Code. For many processors, a ZIP + 4 Code can serve the same purpose.

Even without a ZIP + 4 Code, you can have your mail sub-sorted by the Postal Service by using multiple Post Office Boxes. For the low annual cost of a few extra Post Office Boxes, you can have your mail sorted into trays that more closely match the sequence in which you want to process them. Most lockboxes use one PO. Box per client. Insurance companies often use one RO. Box per product line.

Using the USPS's new Confirm Service for tracking mail, you can staff and, to an extent, estimate your cash flow in advance ol mail delivery. The Postal Service assigns a PLANET codes to Conlirm Service subscribers for outgoing and incoming mail, gathers information as the mail pieces move though various postal sites, and makes that information available to subscribers electronically. You will know when a deluge of mail is headed your way.

One simple way to improve presort is to use different colored envelopes to distinguish payments by product line, type of customer or priority. Colored evelopes help everyone-postal employees and your own staff-avoid sorting errors, and it makes verifying trays of sorted items fast and easy. Check with the Postal Service and your mail-opening equipment vendor about the appropriate envelope colors to use, since some colors are not readable by certain equipment.

Finally, make sure your invoices and coupons tell customers to send all correspondence to an address other than the payment address. Mixing customer correspondence with payments slows both the payments and the correspondence.