Total Cost Per Piece

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All of the following costs should be considered

• Inbound Transportation Costs

• Processing Fees

• Billed Postage Rate or average postage per piece.

• Outbound Shipping Costs or Discounts including Fuel Surcharges

• Heavy or over weight charges (to offset additional freight costs)

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If you are using a vendor that also does commingling, it's good to know if they burying the commingling costs in the other processes they are doing for you? A good way to find this out is to have them quote you all inclusive as well as without you using them for the commingling work. It is not uncommon for a printer to quote 5-dg SCF postage for all of your mail. If they can't sort all of the mail to that level, they lose money. It's likely the costs to cover the additional postage are buried in the production of the mail.

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Reputation

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Items to look for or to ask others clients of the vendor:

• Inability to retain customers long term.

• Not getting work out on time.

• Over-billing or billing for unnecessary services.

• Over-committing their operational capacity and turn-around time.

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Postage Payment Options

 

What are your needs? EPS account, postage payment with a check, wire transfer. How far does the vendor need the postage in advance of the mailing? Do they provide postage escrow management?

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Flexibility

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How flexible is the commingler at meeting your challenges and needs? What is their mailing frequency?

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Staff Experience and Longevity

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Combined years of staff experience doesn't always translate accurately to the current experience of the staff working the mailing in production. Those employees are responsible for getting things done on time and correct. You want to know that those folks have the know-how to make sure your mailing always goes out on time.

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Management Structure

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It is important that the operation have the proper amount of management and talent throughout the organization. If the Operations Manager is on vacation, will your mailing suffer? Is the person responsible for getting your mailing out on time and accurately also managing other areas of the business.

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Customer Service

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Is the commingler going to work with you when things happen? Are they thinking of your needs when things go well or do they call only when things go bad? Does the commingler recognize areas for you to improve your mailing and recommend them to you? Do they play "tag, you're it" when you hand them a mailing with a problem, sending it back to you instead of finding a cost-effective solution?

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Equipment and Maintenance

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A mix of sorters from different manufacturers can create a higher risk of problems, including accurate data accumulation and onsite parts stock. All machines by manufacturer standards should have minor cleaning daily and full maintenance at least once a month. Equipment that looks like it's been overworked most certainly is and likely poorly maintained. This results in more potential for problems.

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Available Capacity

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To determine available capacity, multiply each sorter by 20,000 pieces per hour (which is high for some operations) then by the number of hours the facility is open. Any good facility should be able to tell you how much volume they submit weekly to the USPS as well as how many handles per piece (some pieces are handled more than one time) on average it takes to complete their mailings. This, when compared to the calculated capacity, will tell you how much free capacity there is. If you can't get that info, you are likely dealing with a facility that is over-promising service with not enough capacity.

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Transportation

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Vehicle condition and driver appearance will say a lot about how a company values it's assets including your mail. If you produce large volumes of mail, can the commingler accommodate picking this up efficiently and on time? 

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Professionalism

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In the end, we are all customers of somebody else. We want to be treated respectfully and we want the end result to be exactly what we expected. Nobody wants to handle calls from their customers that have complaints but this is part of being in business. Does your commingler put all of the problems back on you or do they work with you to improve as if a part of your team? Do they show up on time for meetings? Do they respond quickly? Can they provide answers to your questions right away?

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Security

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A secure facility is a good sign of professionalism and how serious the company takes their business. This is not just limited to cameras but also includes secured doors, employee background checks, and how closed up the company entrances are while in operation.

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Mailing Pool

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The biggest reason for using a commingler is to reduce postage and still meet in-home dates. If the commingler can't mix your mail with larger volumes of other mail, you will not reduce postage and costs and you may suffer hitting your in-home dates. If you are commingling Marketing Mail letters, the commingler should have a minimum overall pool of at least 2 million pieces per mailing and ideally 3 million or more. For First Class mailings, there should be at least 1 million pieces daily and ideally, at least 1.5 million.

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