With the USPS July price increase now implemented, there is no better time to take a fresh look at the mailing and shipping side of your business. That includes perhaps “unlearning” some things you think you know, as well as redoing the math that has driven your business to make mailing and shipping choices. The USPS price change not only included increases in prices, it also included significant changes in discounts and incentives, hence the reason to re-do your math to ensure your company is making the best choices in preparing and entering its mail.

Start with the Basics. If your business has not re-evaluated some things that seem too basic, maybe it should. Start with the type of piece you are mailing and evaluate the best size/shape category. For First-Class Mail, postcards are the cheapest size, then letters, then flats, so if your piece is currently a letter, could it be redesigned to card size? Don’t forget the USPS created a very large postcard size that now can accommodate a lot more content than the old-style postcards. If your piece is a First-Class Mail flat, could it be redesigned to fit letter dimensions? That would not only bring significant cost savings but also improved USPS service performance since the USPS’s own data shows that letters have better service performance than flats. If you are mailing using Marketing Mail, there is no benefit to using postcards since they pay the same rate as letters, but there could be significant benefit in redesigning a flat-size piece into letter-size.

Look at the mail class you are using as well; some things that your company may send First-Class Mail may qualify to be sent as Marketing Mail, which is significantly cheaper in terms of postage and with today’s drop ship programs, the service performance can be comparable to First-Class Mail.

Another element of your mailing and shipping that may seem basic but is actually critically important and an area that every business should invest some time in is the addresses you are mailing to. USPS statistics show that for its last Fiscal Year, 2023, Undeliverable-as-Addressed mail cost it over $1 billion to handle… and that doesn’t include the cost to the mail senders of processing pieces with bad addresses. Not to mention that all the money your business invests in designing, printing, and mailing a piece is wasted if it can’t be delivered. There are many address quality solutions available – make sure your business is taking advantage of solutions to keep your addresses current, complete, and correct. It is an investment that can be well worth the time and resources! And if you haven’t looked into it yet, take a look at the USPS’s Secure Destruction program for First-Class Mail, which gets rave reviews from users. There is no USPS fee for using the service and it allows companies to get address correction information electronically while the USPS destroys the undeliverable mail piece using certified secure destruction processes.

Don’t Leave Money on the Table. Start with ensuring your mail piece is USPS automation-compatible and has an Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMb). Once you are doing that, it is an easy step to qualify your mail for the USPS Full-Service discount (which was increased in the July price change). Go further and explore qualifying for the USPS’s Seamless Acceptance program, which earns your business another discount (also increased in the July price change). If your business is using a mail solutions provider to sort and prepare your mail, work together with your provider to see which discounts your mail can qualify for.

Another area to take a new look at is using a provider to commingle your mail with mail from other companies – this will gain you the best possible presort discounts as well as improving USPS service performance by moving mail into the best possible sortation. There are many benefits to using a commingle provider to prepare, sort and enter your mail vs your company doing so, including reduced labor, reduced capital investment for equipment and building space, having an expert solutions provider keeping abreast of ever-changing USPS rules and regulations, and more. Beyond “commingle” be sure to also explore coMail, coTransportation, and coPalletization solutions. And even if you do your own presort, there will be mail that you can’t get to a 5-digit sort – look at handing at least that part of your mailing to a commingle provider that can qualify it for 5-digit discounts.

In addition to discounts for presorting and barcoding mail, the USPS has a growing program of promotions and has added a Growth Incentive which will run again in 2025. There are a variety of USPS promotions that run over different dates of the year and have different requirements and discounts. Look into which is right for your mail – these promotions not only offer a postage discount, they are designed to promote behaviors that improve response rates and other aspects of mail. There will be several new promotions in 2025, and some can be combined for even greater discount. For the Growth Incentive, if your business mails over one million pieces during the incentive year and your volume grows during the incentive year compared to the prior year, you can earn a 30% postage credit on the growth volume to be used on future mailings. Registration for the 2024 Growth incentive has closed, but now is a good time to learn more about the program and how to qualify for 2025. If you are mailing “catalogs,” check out the very simple new USPS catalog incentive.

If faster or more predictable USPS service performance is important to your company, be sure to also explore drop ship entry programs available from logistics providers. Even with the recent USPS changes in some drop ship discounts, there are still economical solutions available that improve the speed and predictability of delivery for all mail classes (except First-Class Mail where USPS does not offer drop ship discounts). If your company doesn’t have the volume or drop ship programs from logistics providers are not viable for your business, explore the USPS’s Priority Mail Open & Distribute (PMOD) solution. Using PMOD, mail trays/sacks move through the USPS’s system as Priority Mail until they reach the destination plant where the mail is opened and the pieces processed as normal, often reducing the total transit time. And don’t forget that using a commingle provider can also improve your USPS service performance by sorting the mail to 5-digit ZIP, which moves more quickly through the USPS’ system.

For parcels, the USPS has made many changes in the past year, and more are likely to come, which means businesses shipping parcels need to re-evaluate their solutions on a regular basis to determine the best carrier to use and the best parcel solution for their business. If your business is using the USPS to ship parcels, be sure to check out lower cost offerings like Bound Printed Matter, or Library/Media Mail if the contents qualify. And just like with mail, there are consolidators and presorters for parcels that can help lower postage costs. Because many carriers and consolidators negotiate contracts with the USPS in terms of the rates they pay, the full impact from the July price increase changes may not be felt until the next contract year for your shipper. The USPS is significantly increasing parcel rates for some categories, so start talking with your shipper now about potential impacts in the coming year so you can explore options.

More information on all these solutions and more can be found at the PRINTING United Expo. While it is not the mailing and shipping-centric National Postal Forum, the PRINTING United Expo has started to add mailing and shipping content, since it naturally fits with the printing theme and attendees. Much of what is printed ends up being mailed, so it makes sense to incorporate information on the next phase in the supply chain. PRINTING United offers a Mailing & Fulfillment track with sessions targeted at the mailing and shipping end of the business. There are also many companies exhibiting at Printing United that offer mailing and shipping services, and can help advise attendees on the best mailing and shipping solutions for their business. These folks are the experts when it comes to that “math” mentioned above, so be sure to spend some of your time at the Expo checking out the solutions they have to offer on the mailing and shipping side of your business.

Kathleen J. Siviter is Asst. Executive Director of the National Association of Presort Mailers (NAPM) as well President of Postal Consulting Services Inc. (PCSi), and she has over 30 years’ experience in the postal industry. She has worked for the U.S. Postal Service, Association for Postal Commerce (PostCom), and others, as well as providing consulting services to a diverse set of clients with interest in the postal industry. She also worked with PostalVision 2020, an initiative designed to engage stakeholders in discussions about the future of the American postal system.

This article originally appeared in the September/October, 2024 issue of Mailing Systems Technology.