How to Save Even More Money with Business Mail Advanced
Royal Mail’s Business Mail Advanced is one of the best ways to save money on your postage costs. If you have a large volume of business mail and also use a franking machine, you can make the best possible savings by taking advantage of Business Mail Advanced. However, from April 2015 these savings will only be available to customers using the new Mailmark franking machines. Let’s examine the range of savings available.
What is Business Mail Advanced?
Business Mail Advanced is a special discount offered by Royal Mail for franked mail customers. In order to qualify, your business must produce a minimum of 500 letters for delivery within the UK. In addition, you have to prepare the letters so that the address and postcode can be read and verified by Royal Mail’s automated technology. If you can satisfy these criteria, 1st Class Letters will be discounted by 4.6p, equal to a 10.5% reduction on the meter price of a Standard 1st Class Letter. The saving on 2nd Class Letters is even greater, a 5.1p discount equal to a 16.5% reduction on the meter price of a Standard 2st Class Letter.
On top of these savings, businesses that mail more than 1,000 items can receive an additional Volume Related Discount of 1.5% and upwards.
Additional Requirements
In addition to mailing a minimum of 500 letters, your business mail also needs to meet certain other criteria to qualify for Business Mail Advanced savings. Letters must be a minimum size of 145mm x 110mm and a maximum of 240mm x 165mm, while thickness must be between 0.25mm and 5mm. The recipient address also needs to be printed in a defined area of the letter and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) address specification is recommended. Royal Mail also requires that certain areas of any mail item are clear of markings. This is so that they can print bar codes on them to speed up the sorting process.
To further facilitate the sorting procedure, all Business Mail Advanced Letters need to be separated into 1st and 2nd Class, placed upside down and in trays facing the front. These trays are provided by Royal Mail, together with wheeled containers into which the trays are placed. Finally, all Letters should have a license number which is typically applied during the franking process.
After completing a Customer Collection Receipt, the letters will be checked for address accuracy and have their license number read by Royal Mail’s sorting machines. Every item of mail that is automatically sorted is allocated a discount, which can be refunded by cheque or as a credit to your business’ Royal Mail account. Items not automatically sorted are priced as Account / Business Mail Advanced.
Royal Mail’s Business Mail Advanced offers fantastic value for large-volume customers of franked mail so talk to Royal Mail if you’re not yet taking advantage of Advanced and would like to find out more. For customers already making big savings using the discount, be sure to upgrade your franking system to Mailmark before April 2015 to continue to get the best deal possible.