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Analysis of the Proposed USPS Postage Increase for 2011

From a bird’s eye view, the 2011 increases don’t appear too severe and average well within the USPS’s price cap as legislated by the Postal Enhancement and Accountability Act of 2006. As a result, we see no apparent reason why these rates would not be approved by the PRC and are scheduled to go in to effect on April 17, 2011.

However, drilling down into the proposed rates revealed a few surprises – Good & Bad:

The Good:

Contrary to last year’s rumors that non-profits would be hit the hardest, they did surprisingly well with no increase whatsoever for automated mail. In fact, the highest  sortation level (Mixed AADC) actually decreased by a little over ½ of 1 percent.

Automated Flats, both First Class and Standard, also did surprisingly well with an average increase for both classes of mail of less than 2 tenths of 1 percent.

While the postage on presorted standard automated letter-size mail (the majority of all business advertising mail) did increase, the increase was relatively small at 1.6 to 1.7 percent as compared to some of the other mail categories.

The Bad:

Not surprisingly, non-automated, non-machinable prices for standard and non-profit letter-sized pieces received the highest increases at 15 to 20 percent.

By not increasing the price of a 44-cent first class letter as sent by a typical American consumer, the entire burden of this year’s postage increase will shift to the commercial business sector.

Flats – in order to meet the legislated annual price cap, many categories actually decreased in price to offset other increases in excess of the price limitation.  However, from a “volume” standpoint of an average mail job, those decreases occur at sort levels that would normally contain only a small percentage of the overall mail job volume (often called “residual mail”). The resulting impact may cause total final postage figures in excess of the legislated cap percentage while still allowing the USPS to be in compliance with the regulation.

Below is the line-by-line analysis of the most (but not all) of the commonly used postal rate categories. For more information, or for categories not listed here, you can go to www.USPS.com/prices and click on the link “New Prices For Mailing Services April 17, 2011”.  

We have now installed multiple in-line high-speed tabbers from Kirk-Rudy that makes it possible for us to inkjet addressee information and place multiple tabs on any side of a booklet mail piece all in one high-speed pass !

The new equipment acquisition not only puts us in compliance with the new US Postal Service regulations, but, gives us a distinct advantage over other mailers who must perform multiple ink jet and tabbing passes to accomplish the same result. This means we are able to process more jobs much quicker than our competitors!

Fulfillment Partners – Millennium Marketing Group doubles print capacity on its high-speed

ink jets. With 12 print heads distributed over 4 banks, we now have the ability to ink jet

variable information on an area of 6” x 13.5”in a single pass.

Consumers Like Cards !!!!!

We’ve noticed a significant increase in the number and quantity of mail pieces that we are generating that includes a plastic, credit-card-sized promotional card. There are several ways to produce this effect, ranging from personalized cards that have to be hand matched and glued to the inside pages of a brochure, to pre-mounted cards that can be lasered with the required information. These cards are called “DocuCards” and can be ordered in virtually any configuration with as little as 1 card on a form to as many as 6 cards to a form.

We also have a card “tip-on” unit that can affix generic cards to mail pieces at a high rate of speed.

The cards are extremely effective as it gives your mail piece a sense of “exclusivity” as well as giving the recipient something to remove from the mail piece and place in their purse or wallet.

Have you ever had an application where you needed to insert multiple personalized, targeted documents into an envelope? These types of applications are normally used in a “fulfillment” environment.

Let’s suppose, for a moment, that your application entailed responding to requests

from potential tourists about what types of activities exist in and around the Orlando area.  

Inquiry number 1 needed to know about area golf courses and any golfing discounts that can be taken advantage of. Inquiry number 2 was interested in theme parks and Inquiry number 3 needed to know about area fishing charters.

Traditionally, these three inquiries would be fulfilled by pulling pre-printed brochures and coupons relative to their area of interest , inserting them into an envelope, addressing the envelope and mailing it back to the potential visitor. Along with the brochures and coupons, you would also want to insert some type of personalized letter thanking them for their inquiry along with a strong appeal to entice them to come and stay here in Orlando.

Ok, so, inquiry number 1 gets a personalized letter, 6 brochures (1 for each golf course in the area), some greens fees coupons from a couple of the courses, a couple of discount coupons for motels and resorts that are near the courses, and maybe a coupon for golf equipment from one of the equipment manufacturers all inserted into an envelope.

Inquiry number 2 gets a personalized letter, along with brochures and coupons relative to theme parks, while, inquiry number 3’s package would be relative to area fishing charters, professional fishing guides, discount coupons from bait and tackle shops, and so on.

Along with the tedious work of hand-inserting all the correct individual pre-printed brochures and coupons, one also has to keep up with the on-hand quantity of each brochure and coupon you have left in inventory so you know when to reorder the printed material.

The new “envelope” streamlines, simplifies, and automates the entire process by printing an on-demand facsimile of each of those brochures, personalized letters and coupons all in one pass and then binding them into a “booklet” that is then wafer-sealed and mailed immediately. No inventory to keep up with, no hand intervention, and no possibility of inserting the wrong information into the wrong envelope.

The inquiring tourist perceives a higher value by receiving a professional looking, fully personalized, and fully targeted booklet containing all the exact information requested.

It’s also less expensive, overall, to produce these “new envelopes”.  Since all the pieces are printed “on-demand” from blank paper, you have no money tied up in inventory. You don’t pay for for warehouse storage and also don’t waste money by throwing away and re-printing existing inventory due to current changes that render the original brochures or coupons obsolete (new theme park rides, changes in rates, etc).

These printed-on-demand, digital, variable image, variable data booklets are being used more and more each day for everything from insurance enrollment kits, 401-k investment fund reports, stock and investment portfolios, to travel itineraries and resort reservation confirmations. It’s the wave of the future, the “New Envelope” and, it’s available right now at Fulfillment Partners – Millennium Marketing Group! Call today for more information.

Fulfillment Partners – Millennium Marketing Group’s vast array of folders and bindery equipment is capable of performing many complicated finishing tasks. Paper can be cut, trimmed, folded, nested, scored or perforated to produce a beautifully finished product. Unlike most print and mail facilities, we have the ability to secure open-end self-mailers during the folding process by laying down tiny spots of glue prior to the mail piece passing through the final pressure roller.

Fulfillment Partners – Millennium Marketing Group has two (2) high-speed ink jet addressing systems that can process more than 30,000 mail pieces per hour. Each ink jet has the ability to affix tabs, wafer seals, or postage stamps in-line during the ink jet addressing process.

Always there to help in the Orlando tradeshow and convention industry, Fulfillment Partners – Millennium Marketing Group can assemble and ship goody bags and lanyards, as well as print tent cards, name tags, posters, programs, brochures and signs.