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Take advantage of postal discounts

By Harley Hitchcock

The purpose of this article is to ensure your publication is taking advantage of every postage discount to which you are entitled.  In this difficult business climate and with postal rates in general rising every year, it is important you are aware of and taking advantage of every discount available to you.

One discount you may be entitled to is the Limited Circulation Discount.  This discount is applied to outside county postage charges.  To be eligible for this discount the publication must mail some in-county copies and less than 5000 outside county copies per issue.  The DMM reference for this discount is 707.11.1.4.  This discount is often overlooked, even by certain approved software products.  If you think you are entitled to this discount check your postage statement and make sure you are getting the discount.

11.1.4 Limited Circulation Discount

Publications, excluding Nonprofit, Classroom, and Limited Circulation Science-of-Agriculture publications, receive a 5 percent discount off the total Outside-County postage, excluding the postage for advertising pounds, if eligible copies are mailed at In-County prices and the total number of Outside-County copies mailed for that issue is less than 5,000. Nonsubscriber or nonrequester copies claiming the Limited Circulation discount are subject to the standards in 7.0.

Barcoded piece rate discounts average from one to three cents per piece.  If your mailings meet the requirements (DMM 707.14.0) for this rate check your postage statement and make sure you are getting the discount.  If you are paying for vendor software you should have the capability of meeting the requirements for this rate.  If you have questions relating to this please contact your vendor.  If you are not currently using approved software, the potential to claim the barcoded rate could offset some of the costs of obtaining approved software.

Destination Delivery Unit discounts apply to both in-county and outside county, as well as both pound and piece rates.  If your mail is deposited at a facility which will deliver a portion of your mail, this discount would apply to those pieces.  The DMM reference is 707.29.5.
29.5 Destination Delivery Unit
29.5.1 Definition

For this standard, the destination delivery unit (DDU) is the facility where the carrier cases mail for delivery to the addresses on the pieces in the mailing.
29.5.2 Price Eligibility

Determine price eligibility as follows:

a. Piece Prices. In-County pieces are eligible for a per piece discount off the addressed piece price.

b. Pound Prices. Carrier route pieces (In-County and Outside-County) are eligible for DDU pound prices when deposited at the facility where the carrier serving the delivery address on the mail is located.

c. Container Prices. Outside-County mailers may claim a DDU container price for 5-digit scheme and more finely presorted containers that are entered at and destined within the service area of the DDU at which the container is deposited.

Carrier Route High Density is another often overlooked discount.  The majority of member publications claim a certain number of carrier route copies, but some of these copies may be eligible for the lower high density rate. The current price difference is 1.5 cents per piece.  The requirement for the high density rate is either 125 pieces per carrier route, or 25 percent of total active possible deliveries for that route.  The DMM reference is 707.13.3.4.b and c.  Not all approved software automatically gives you this lower rate.  If you think you are entitled to this discount check your postage statement and make sure you are getting the discount.  If you are using approved software and are not getting this discount please contact your vendor.

b. Except under 13.3.4c, at least 125 walk-sequenced addressed pieces must be prepared for each carrier route receiving mail claimed at the high density price. Mail for carrier routes of 124 or fewer possible deliveries can qualify for the high density price if there are at least 125 addressed pieces for the route or if pieces are addressed to every possible delivery on the route. This mail may also qualify for the saturation price, subject to 13.3.4e. In-County price pieces may also qualify for high density prices under 13.3.4c.

c. Mail may qualify for In-County high density prices when there are addressed pieces for a minimum of 25 percent of the total active possible deliveries on a carrier route. If a route contains addresses both within and outside the county, the number of pieces addressed to the entire carrier route will be used to determine if percent requirement, only the pieces for that carrier route that are addressed to addresses within the county in which the original entry is located may qualify for the In-County high density prices.

As always, if you have questions please contact your TPA Periodicals Consultants.