Reducing the cost of your franking
Added: 06/03/2009 Reporter: Peter James
When talking to users of franking machines the conversation often moves on to the high costs of their running. Customers will often spend over £50 for 1000 franking labels and anywhere from £30 upwards for the franking ink. Sometimes an ink cartridge can be sold by the manufacturer for over £100. The customers complain that these costs remove the savings that they expected to make when they first moved over to franking. Of course this loss of saving is not taking into account the hidden saving of not having to queue up at the local post office to purchase stamps.
Use Alternative Suppliers
As often occurs in a recession, people are starting to look at alternatives to buying their franking supplies from the franking machine manufacturer. Not only can this lower the costs of operation of your franking machine, it also provides a second source of franking supplies that can be tapped when supplies are low. Prices are coming down with a number of suppliers of compatible ink cartridges. Mailing Supplies Online for example are now selling a Pitney Bowes compatible ink cartridge for the PersonalPost E700 for only £14.83 + vat. Earlier in the year they were selling the same cartridge for about £18 and Pitney Bowes sells the original for over £30. Mailing Supplies Online are also selling franking labels that have been manufactured to a high standard within the UK. These franking labels being sold at £25.99 + vat for 1000 labels are compatible with most franking machines as they go through the franking machine just like an envelope. For franking machines that take a franking label through a hopper feed Mailing Supplies Online selling a single strip franking label for £24.99 + vat per 1000.
Remove The Logo
Another way to reduce the cost of your franking is to only frank the minimum impression. This may sound obvious but many customers franking impression includes not only the postage indicia, but also their corporate logo and message. Most franking machines provide the option to stop using the logo and just print the postage indicia. By doing this you will save ink and therefore will need to buy less franking machine ink cartridges. Over time the saving could be quite considerable.
Use Email
Although many items still need to be sent through the physical postage system, these difficult times provide an ideal opportunity to review your procedures in regard to what is sent by post and what is sent by email. If you are currently sending invoices by post you may what to ask yourself why you do not send them by email. There will probably still be some of your customers that insist on physical invoices on headed paper, buy many of your customers will be happy with an emailed electronic invoice. For each customer you convert onto the email system you are saving your business money.
Use Hybrid Mail
Hybrid mail can be a good compromise between using email and delivering a physical document to your customer. Hybrid mail allows you to print your documents to a special printer driver. The output is then sent across the internet to the providers printing and fulfilment facility. They print, envelop, and apply postage to your mailing. The cost per item sent will usually be more than the cost of a franking impression, but you are saving money in the time savings and stock savings of using your own franking machine less. Via Post are currently offering their hybrid mail solution for £0.27 + vat per single page document sent. Alternatives are available offering different pricing structures and services. The main disadvantage of using hybrid mail is that you can add your own leaflets into the envelope before sealing. So they are less useful for marketing mailings.
