April 2007 Truth Advertising Church Marketing Newsletter
Important Changes to Non-Profit US Postage Effective May 14th 2007
Beginning May 14th 2007 the US Postal System will be eliminating the (DDU) Local Post Office discount option and plan to phase out the option allowing you to clear your mail at a local DDU station.
Currently you have 3 choices to getting your mail entered into the postal system:
- Clearing mail at your local (DDU) Local Post Office
- Clearing mail at a (SCF) Regional Post Office
- Clearing mail at a (BMC) Large State Post Office
The USPS purpose in this decision is outlined on the USPS web site: www.usps.com/ratecase.
The basic USPS goal to streamline the mailing process, so they can save time and money.
What does this mean for you? If you are a current Truth Advertising customer and use our Ghost Permitting option, (90% of our clients do), it means your new postage rate will be .066 cents each if we clear at a (SCF) facility.
The new rate for clearing at a (SCF) regional facility will be .066 cents each for saturation non profit bulk mail verses the old rate of .072 cents each. SO IN ESSENCE YOUR TOTAL COST WILL GO DOWN.
If you do not clear your mail at a SCF facility. Your rate can be as high as .105 cents each.
For those of you already using this service of ours that is great news. However, you should budget an extra 3 - 5 days into the mailing time.
The "ghosting" process will remain the same. We will address and process your mail for you, but instead of trucking it to your local Post Office, we will truck it to the nearest (DSCF) Regional Facility to be co-mingled with first class mail. Again, we need to budget an extra 3 days for mailing.
For those of you who currently clear the mail yourself at your local Post Offices or order pre-printed cards from another company to mail yourself, this may present a couple problems you should be aware of.
You now must find the closest (DSCF) to you to take your mail to. This could be 1 - 2 hours away, depending on your region.
You must drive to that station, drop your mail, and then call to make an appointment the following day, to return on day 3 to clear your mail.
Any wrong paperwork, irregularities in weight, etc., will usually result in penalties.
We urge you to:
- Use a reputable Church Marketing Company to handle your entire process: Design, Print, Address, and Clear your Mail for you at the Post Offices. (in the end it will save you time and money)
- Use Truth Advertising and fill out the "Ghost" mailing form 3624, let us handle the whole process for you, and even save your permitting fee of $160 each year.
For more information on how to qualify for "ghost" mailing use this link, http://www.truthadvertising.org/authorization_mail.php or simply call us at 1-888-424-1980 ext 1830.
We will be receiving training on the specifics of this in more detail next week. We will be sure to pass the information on to you.
