FRANKING MACHINES: HIGH COSTS, LITTLE RESULT
Companies often have a lot of outgoing mail to process, such as sending invoices, reminders, newsletters, pay slips or direct mails. Processing this pile of mail is therefore a lengthy and boring process. A franking machine already offers quite an improvement over the manual sticking of a stamp, but is far from being the ideal solution for your company’s outbound mail handling. It can even cause that mail processing to come to a complete standstill. We’ll explain it to you.
How a franking machine works
Let’s start at the beginning. How do you use such a franking machine? Well, you always have the choice to buy or rent a franking machine from a certified dealer. Once you have the machine in your possession, you can start working with it. Depending on the volume of your outgoing mail, you charge a postage credit on a monthly basis. When you want to make your mail ready for dispatch, indicate in the franking machine the type of mail (e.g. registered mail, domestic mail, international mail or parcels) so that the machine franks the correct amount. The franking machine then weighs your shipment and determines the standard rate on the basis of all this information. After franking, you deliver the outgoing mail to your mail distributor.
Loss of valuable time
So you can imagine that preparing your outgoing mail is a time-consuming task, even with the help of a franking machine. It may be a faster process than sticking stamps manually, but you still need to provide staff to have all the mail handled and franked by the franking machine. The time it takes for your employees to prepare the mail is always at the expense of other tasks that are more related with your core business.
In addition, you are completely dependent on the franking machine to send your mail. You are completely dependent on the franking machine to send your mail. You have to wait for technical assistance, with the result that important mail such as invoices and reminders cannot be sent out on time.
A high cost
The biggest downside when using a franking machine to process your mail is the high cost involved. Buying or even renting a franking machine costs a lot of money. You must also include the annual cost of a maintenance contract, as well as the purchase of the necessary ink cartridges and labels. On top of that, some suppliers charge an extra cost if you charge postage credit on the franking machine too often. Combine these hidden costs and you’ll have a very large expense. Not all companies possess this kind of budget, so they have to look for another solution for their outgoing mail. Certainly because the ‘human’ cost is to be added. Because in addition to the cost of the postage and the machine itself, the wages of the processing staff also have to be paid.
In addition, a franking machine works with standard postal rates that do not take into account the volume of your outgoing mail. This means that with such a machine, you cannot enjoy specific discounts or volume advantages. In addition, human error can also occur in the process. It regularly happens that the franking settings of the previous mailing are not adjusted to the new mailing, and that either too much (unnecessary extra cost) or too little (high chance of recurring mail, i.e. both time loss and extra costs) is franked.
Buying or renting a franking machine may seem like a good investment at first sight, but it actually offers little added value at a far too high price. Outsourcing your outgoing mail can be a nice alternative in that case. No more hidden costs and a complete relief of your mail processing so your employees no longer lose valuable time. This allows them to focus on your company’s core business with increased productivity as the icing on the cake.
Curious about how Easypost can relieve you of your worries about outgoing mail? Then contact us quickly for a customized proposal!
