In a previous article, we discussed the discount offered by the Royal Mail for Direct Mail campaigns, which can be accessed here. In summary, this discount provides substantial savings for mail pieces sent to recipients who aren't expecting them.
To qualify as a Hybrid Mail supplier, you need to ensure the cleanliness of recipient address data. This process involves comparing the data with the Royal Mail's Postal Address File (PAF) to clean it up. Matching the data against the PAF allows for the creation of Mailmark or barcode, making the mail piece machine-readable. When presented to the Royal Mail by the hybrid mail partner, they can confirm that the address is correct and readable. This streamlined process reduces processing costs for the Royal Mail, enabling them to offer discounted postal rates.
Presenting the mail in an acceptable machinable format makes the mail easy for them to handle. They are all the same way and the barcode and indicia has a clear zone which the machines need.
Mail is pre-sorted to the 86 UK SIC areas, which in simplest form are the postcode areas like EX or SW. The mail is then taken to a regional sortation office in palletised trays (called yorks). The trays have labels on them which are gunned and then separated out.
Multiple jobs are laid up together at the production stage and as such they are all printed together using state of the art digital printing equipment.