EII is Selling Rubber Bands!
The latest update from the USPS is that they will no longer be supplying rubber bands to postal customers. EII will be assisting mailers by selling rubber bands at competitive prices on EZ-Supplies.com and on our order page.
- 425 rubber bands per pound
- Each rubber band is 3 ½" by ¼" (the same size rubber band used by the USPS)
- 50-lb case available (10 bags)
- Skids available (10 cases - 500 lbs)
- Special pricing available on orders of 1000 pounds or more
- Free freight on orders of 500 pounds or more
- Credit card processing will be available through the EZ-Supplies website via PayPal invoicing
Business Opportunities in 2010
Priority MailOpportunities for postage savings with USPS Priority Mail have significantly increased with the 2010 rates which went into effect January 4th. This translates into a significant business opportunity for Service Bureaus. The key to maximizing this opportunity is not to pay “retail”, and the easiest way to pay “wholesale” is by using a manifesting system to qualify for Commercial Base or Commercial Plus pricing.
Last year, the “spread”, or savings for the rate usually represented by a chart, between Retail and Commercial Base for this mail piece was $1.02. On January 4th, it leapt up to $1.76. If you qualify for Commercial Plus pricing, your spread increased from $1.30 to $2.30. The greater the weight and the higher the zone, the greater the savings. We have compiled a comprehensive breakdown of these rates, called Priority All Rates, so you can do your own spread calculations for any weight or zone. To become familiar with them, go to:
Move Update: Assessment Update and FastForward™/UMove™
A couple of things happened recently regarding Move Update. The NCSC made official two methods for using FastForward™ on Flat Mail and the USPS changed their assessment policy on Move Update.
The USPS is dramatically changing the way it calculates the assessment of Move Update. Previously, if you failed at 30% or more, you were assessed Single Piece postage ($0.07 on Standard Mail) on the entire mailing. Now you will only be assessed on the percentage of mail over 30% that fail Move Update. An assessment score of 60% would result in a 10% assessment (60% = 40% error, 40% - 30% = 10%).
In addition, if you are able to prove, at the time you enter the mail, that the failed pieces are from particular customers, and you can show what percentage of the mail is from those customers, then that will apply as well. For example, if your score was 60% and you could show that all the failed pieces came from 3 customers who made up 20% of the mailing, then the penalty would only be 2% (20% of 10%).
This is great new for mailers and shows the USPS is listening to our feedback. For the official word from the USPS go to:
In order to support the new assessment policy, Engineering Innovation will be adding a report to accompany each manifest that shows the mail makeup by customer. Should you get a Move Update Assessment, this will give you the documentation you need at acceptance to get your assessment reduced based on the clients presenting the problem.
The USPS made official two methods for using FastForward&trade (or UMove™) on Flats. In the first method, pieces that qualify for move update will be sent at Single Piece rates. The second involved labeling over the address. EII is working with the NCSC on alternative proposals to make processing Flats with FastForward™ even easier. Keep an eye on forthcoming newsletters for details as they become available.
In addition to the Move Update options currently supported on the EZ-Flats, Engineering Innovation is working with FastForward™ and UMove™ to determine the best solution for the EZ-Flats and Champ systems. Look for a UMove™ or FastForward™ solution to be available in Q4 this year.
Barcode Reading Added to EZ-Flats
With the new System Release 2.6, EII is adding a barcode reader to the camera (above the scale) on the EZ-Flats Essential, Enhanced, and Premium. Please contact Customer Support at 765-807-0699 if you are interested in any of the following features.
Using the new barcode feature, the machine settings may be configured to not print an IMB if one is detected by the camera. The USPS 3553 Report generated by EII will only count pieces barcoded by EII. For all other pieces, the presorted should receive a 3553 from the mailer for pre-barcoded pieces.
An additional "Wide Area Barcode Reader" license may be obtained that adds two more pieces of functionality. The first feature is the ability to use the data from a second barcode as the sequence number in the IMB. Presorters will be able to offer this as a value-added feature to mailers who wish to track their own mail. The second feature allows additional barcodes to be read from the mail piece and placed in the EII manifest or billing exports. The feature allows mailers to print a barcode with a unique ID that EZ-Flats can read. The export could then be used as a "proof of processing" for the mailer.
EZ-Flats Inbound Mail Solution
The Challenge: Inbound mail is defined as "mail arriving at a company or institution." Similar to Outbound mail, Inbound mail arrives from many different sources, such as the United States Postal Service (USPS), Federal Express (FedEx™), or United Parcel Service (UPS™). However, the inbound mail piece may use different configurations of routing information. A few of the challenges associated with Inbound mail include:
- Most inbound mail has the recipient's name on it but lacks important internal routing information such as floor, building, or mail stop.
- Most manual approaches to sorting inbound mail require an individual to obtain a copy of the company directory and look-up a recipient's address on a piece-by-piece basis.
- Every company's internal routing structure is different.
- The information that needs to be printed on an inbound mail piece based on the recipient.
The Solution: Engineering Innovation, Inc., a leader in providing solutions for handling outbound mail, is pleased to announce the release of it's inbound processing solution for the EZ-Flats mail processing system. The EZ-Flats inbound solution utilizes the newest released of the SmartMatch-i advanced address recognition software from RAF, a leading provider of data capture and management software for the mailing industry. The combination of the EZ-Flats mail processing system with the RAF SmartMatch-i advanced address recognition software provides a flexible inbound solution. Some of the features of the EZ-Flats inbound solution are:
- Easy import of a company's current database
- Easy configuration of "aliases" for company employees and departments
- Easy configuration and prioritization of sorting logic
- Easy customization of printing based on sorting logic
- Easy export of mail piece information of sorted mail pieces
The EZ-Flats Inbound solution is a simple addition to the EZ-Flats Outbound solution. This makes it very easy for the owner of an EZ-Flats system to quickly and easily transition between processing inbound mail and outbound mail.
Argosy Post and SmartMatch-i are trademarks of RAF Technology, Inc.
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