Many mailers assume that Priority Mail is used only for shipping small packages, but there is a service in Priority Mail that can be used by mailers of letters and flats. It is called Priority Mail Open and Distribute (PMOD), and this service is used to drop ship mail of various classes and processing categories. Even if you don't currently drop ship your mail, perhaps due to small volumes, PMOD may be a cost-effective option to look at. If you do currently drop ship mail, you may want to take advantage of PMOD for small volume entries.
Improve Delivery Service
If you have problem delivery areas, or remote destinations, such as Alaska, Hawaii, or Guam, you may want to consider using PMOD to drop ship your Standard Mail or Periodicals mail to entry points in those locations. You can also use PMOD to speed up normal delivery times for Standard Mail. Using PMOD to drop ship Standard Mail can provide close to First-Class delivery standards without paying First-Class postage on each individual piece of mail.
Drop Ship Small Volume Entry Points
If you currently drop ship your Periodicals or Standard Mail to numerous entry points, you may find some entry points simply do not have enough volume to drop ship by traditional means, such as truckload, less-than-truckload (LTL) or airfreight. In these cases, this mail is often entered at the origin point. Using PMOD for these small volume points, such as Butte MT or Fargo ND, allows you to achieve similar delivery times and drop-ship discounts as your other drop ship mail without breaking your transportation piggy bank.
The Business Case
To truly understand the potential benefits of PMOD, you will need to analyze your mailings. The best way to do that is by using Mail.dat files and robust post-presort software tools. These tools will provide a side-by-side comparison of entering your mail at the origin point vs. entry at additional entry points, taking into account the costs of Priority Mail. In PMOD, the Priority Mail postage takes the place of the more traditional transportation charges, such as truckload, LTL, or airfreight. Post-presort software will also allow you to include administrative costs in this analysis.
Getting PMOD into Production
Using PMOD used to be a cumbersome process, because the special tags required, along with the postal documentation was previously all manually generated. Now, post-presort software can be used to automatically generate these documents, so integrating PMOD into your mailing operation is very simple.
