Make Your Fundraising Postage Work Harder
Select premiums carefully.
In addition to the attributes noted above, automation-rate letter-size mail must be flexible enough to travel easily through Postal Service sorting equipment. A premium added to the mail piece often disqualifies the piece from being accepted at automation letter rates. Look for premiums that are thin and flexible. Reasonably flexible items such as promotional cards or return-address labels are permitted, but pencils, pens and other rigid premiums are not allowed in automation-rate letter-size mail. In fact, a premium that makes a mail piece too bulky (more than 0.75 of an inch thick) or too rigid can not only disqualify your mail for letter rates, but might also take your mail from the flats category to the even more expensive “non-flat machinable” classification.
- People:
- Kurt Ruppel
Kurt Ruppel is Director Postal Policy and Marketing Communications at IWCO Direct. He is a member of the Mailers’ Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) and serves on the Board of Directors at the Envelope Manufacturers Association (EMA), where he is also Vice Chair of the EMA’s Postal Affairs Committee. He can be reached at kurt.ruppel@iwco.com.
