What is the Royal Mail's Mailsort scheme and how does it work?
Associated product(s): Product name: Mailsort | Implementation: Standalone
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Countries:
United Kingdom
This document provides a very brief introduction to the Royal Mail's Mailsort and Walksort discount schemes. For a fuller description, please refer to the Royal Mail's Mailsort Users Guide. It also provides an introduction to the QAS Mailsort package.
What are Mailsort and Walksort?
Mailsort and Walksort are discount schemes provided by the Royal Mail to companies who have large mailing requirements. Discounts of up to 40% can be achieved.
What must the customer do to get these discounts?
The customer does part of the sorting work normally carried out by the Royal Mail. This means that the pre-sorted mailbags can be sent directly to the delivery offices and not to the sorting office. Mail items must be correctly sorted, labelled and bagged by the customer ready for collection.
What discount schemes are available?
The following discount schemes are available:
Service | Delivery time | Description | Maximum discount |
Mailsort 1 | Next day | For letters or packets | 15% |
Mailsort 2 | Three days | For letters or packets | 13% |
Mailsort 3 | Seven days | For letters or packets | 32% |
Walksort 1 | Next day | For letters or packets | 40% |
Walksort 2 | Three days | For letters or packets | 40% |
Presstream 1 | Next day | For periodicals | 15% |
Presstream 2 | Three days | For periodicals | 13% |
Mailsort RSVP 1 | Next day | For mail items requiring reply | 8% |
Mailsort RSVP 2 | Three days | For mail items requiring reply | 11% |
Mailsort RSVP 3 | Seven days | For mail items requiring reply | 20% |
To qualify for Mailsort discount, all outgoing mail must be coded, sorted and bagged ready for collection. The qualification requirements must also be met. The Mailsort process can be broken down into the following steps:
Coding: For each address, a Mailsort standard selection code (SSC) must be added. This is a five-digit code that identifies the delivery office.
Sorting: The addresses must be sorted into order according to the selection codes.
Reports : The computer planning report and line-listings (see below) are generated and printed.
Labels: Bag labels (and optionally address labels) are printed.
Each mail item must have a standard selection code added. This can be a direct selection code (five digits) or a residue selection code (first significant three digits); direct selections provide a more specific destination than residues. The SSC is derived from the postcode, but if the postcode is missing, then it is possible to derive a residue code from the town name.
Once an SSC has been added to each address, the records must be sorted into the correct order in order to produce labels for direct selection bags and for residue bags. The order depends on the SSC.
This contains a summary of the mailing items and includes such information as the postcoding level, numbers of selections (both direct and residue), numbers of bags, costs and discounts.
A line listing for direct selections and for residues must be produced. These are simply a list of the number of items and bags in each selection.
- The mailing must contain a minimum of 4000 letters or 1000 packets. The minimum number of letters is reduced to 2000 if they are all to be delivered in the same postcode area (e.g. SW).
- The addresses must be 90% fully postcoded.
- Items must be sorted, bundled, and bagged. Bags must be labelled.
- Documentation including planning reports and line-listings must be provided.
Presstream is designed for regular mailings of newspapers, magazines or other periodicals.
The rules are the same as form Mailsort with the following exceptions and additions:
- The material must contain at least one-sixth editorial that is not related to the selling of goods or services.
- Details of the title and date of the publication must be presented on the front cover.
- Posting must be made on regular dates as defined in the contract. This must be at least twice a year for Presstream 2 and at least ten times a year for Presstream 1.
- The minimum sortation level of 300 selections must be met.
Mailsort RSVP is designed for fulfilment mail items such as questionnaires, coupons, customer enquiries and the like.
The rules are the same as for Mailsort with the following exceptions and additions:
- The minimum volume requirement of 1000 items per day of collection (average) must be met. In addition, the annual RSVP volume must be 100,000 or more.
- There is no minimum postcoding requirement since many of the addresses will have been generated by recipients of previous mailings filling in coupons and suchlike.
This requires a higher level of sorting than the Mailsort and Presstream schemes. Sorting must be done to the postal walk level. This requires the addition of an eight-digit selection code to each address. This code consists of the Mailsort SSC (five digits) followed by three digits that identify the walk. There are no residues for Walksort.
- Mailing must be sent to at least 10% of all households within its coverage area. If the posting is to be within a single postcode area however, then the penetration must be 4% or greater.
- The minimum number of mail items is the same as for Mailsort (4000 letters or 1000 packets).
- All items must be fully postcoded.
