Royal Mail - Smartstamp - PPI

[the funky fairy]

Hi All

I currently use smartstamp for mailing which I am quite happy with as it gives me all the customers detail on Proof of Postage etc however recently I had a visit from Royal Mail (I must be getting busier!) and they recommended PPI system to me as it would save me money.

After getting all the details through it appears to me much more long winded everything has to go in separate bags, I don't get a list of specific addresses at the end just an order sheet and I still have to go to the boring Post Office.

Reason for this post is I would like to know what everyone uses how it works for them and speed as we are getting busier and busier (hoorah) so I just don't want to spend too much time printing stamps!

Many thanks in advance for any responses.

[little-linguist]

We use PPI and it's very easy.

If you are sending more than 5000 large letters & packets a year (and from experience they don't really seem to monitor this too much as long as you're fairly close to it), you can also use it in conjunction with "packetpost" where each day you just pay the same rate for every parcel of the same class and type (e.g. 2nd class packets) based on average weight. So you just weigh the sack(s), divide the weight by the number of parcels in them and that's the weight for each parcel - much easier than weighing each one individually. The rates for packetpost / PPI accounts are a bit cheaper than normal rates at the post office / with stamps.

You have to separate 1st and 2nd Class mail (and international if applicable). If you use packetpost, whether you separate large letters and packets is up to you. If you have a large number of large letters, it would probably work out cheaper for you to send these separately. If it's just a few, we bung them in with the packets and don't really lose out as they tend to be lighter and so bring the average weight down as a whole making each parcel cheaper.

For us, we send everything 2nd class so don't need to separate the mail at all - only if we're sending letters as these will go in a seperate sack.

If you're sending a lot of mail, then instead of taking it all to the post office, why not consider a business collection. It costs about £10/week and in my opinion is money well spent when you consider the time (and possibly fuel) spent on going to / from the post office and queuing up etc each day. Mr / Mrs Postie comes to you at a set time everyday - so easy.

[mikepayn]

We jumped from SmartStamp to a Franking Machine from Pitney Bowes. We looked at PPI and thought it didn't really suit our setup. Franking machine (linked to 2Kg weighing scales) costs us £11.50 a month but you make this back easily by paying less for postage.

We then bought a Dymo Labelwriter400 so we can cut and paste our addresses onto it and a word document Certificate of Posting (COP). Being able to cut and paste to the labels and COP was one of the key attractions of SmartStamp, plus letting it work out the postage (which of course a franking machine does).

We post everything first class, anything over 2Kg we send by carrier.

It works perfectly and quickly for us. And this settup looks good with our logo on the address label and postage stamp. As for Post Office queues, choose your Post Office and have a chat to the manager. Then bag your post up every day and leave it with them with the COP and they'll process it when they can and let you have the signed form back the next day.

If you do follow this route pm me and I'll give you some do's and dont's that can save a fortune.

[the funky fairy]

Thanks for your comments and yes Mike I have PM'd you. I find it interesting what everyone uses and how best it works for some and not others.

I especially hate the Post Office run so am heading towards I think the collection from home side just don't like to part with cash!