However poorly the U.S. Postal Service is doing financially, who can afford to prop them up by paying through the nose for those non-machinable pieces you invariably produce?
Feeling our pain (or sensing a gap in the market), Consolidated Graphics (CGX) recently landed a patent that just might lead to some much-needed savings for us all.
U.S. Patent #8,376,212, “Automated Flat Mail Piece,” is for a CGX Flex Mailer that consists of a flexible outer “skin” and a unique inner tray. That skin is tight enough to allow flexibility, yet has enough surface tension to keep thickness variations to under a ¼ inch.
All of which means whatever you ship inside the mailer is classified as automated machinable flat, saving you a small fortune on special handling procedures. One example CGX gives is of a package that would cost $1.77 to send using non-auto flat postage, and 50 cents for auto flat, meaning a $1.27 savings. Not bad.
Developed as a custom solution for a CGX customer, the mailer comes in six sizes, designed to handle everything from a USB drive to a T-shirt. The package can be tracked through an Intelligent Mail Barcode printed directly on it. And if all of that wasn’t enough, the packages are made using wind energy and soy-based inks. More info here.
