Thinking about franking?

It’s very easy to manage your own post, and remove the time, cost, the tedium of finding the right stamp, and admin associated with tracking those posted items.

At IMS Franking, we have been helping our customers to send, receive, and manage documents for over three decades, and we get asked a lot of questions from businesses looking at ways to improve efficiency, and save costs with their outgoing post. We are always happy to answer these questions, and offer the best advice, and if needed, the right machines to achieve this.

In this short blog we answer some of the questions we get asked so that you can decide if you should take advantage of more modern ways of posting your mail.

Some of the questions frequently asked are:

• Can I frank my own post?
• Can I put my franked post in a normal postbox?
• Can I print my own postage stamps?
• Can I print stamps online?
• Can I pay for postage online?

Postage options for small businesses

For most correspondence, the easiest and quickest way to get the message from A to B is digitally. Emails, texts, attachments, and online transfers are all part of our daily life, but what about posting physical mail, especially smaller businesses sending parcels, packages and small letters?

The success of selling platforms like Etsy, Amazon, and eBay has allowed people to start up small businesses from the comfort of their own homes, with online shops saving money on renting physical shop space, reducing overheads and risk, and giving freedom to work when it suits. But how do you keep your customers happy, your post getting out on time, and your costs low?

You have a couple of options that make life a lot simpler, you can either frank your own post, or print your stamps and drop your parcels at the post office. Here is a little bit about both...

Frank your own post

Franking your own post is essentially having your own post office in your business (or home). You weigh the letter or parcel, type in the postage details and print out a label – just as would be done in the Post Office. You pay exactly the right postage, and there are additional savings on the postage costs with the new MailMark franking. All you need to do is keep your supply of inks, or labels for larger parcels and you can manage all your outgoing post easily. You just need to drop the parcels off or arrange a regular pick up from the Royal Mail. This is particularly good if you’re posting a lot of mail and can’t easily get to a post office regularly, and it’s pretty straightforward to set up a business account. There are a range of options for pick up to suit your volume and working week.

Print your own postage labels

If you’re using stamps to send out your mail, you might want to look at Royal Mail’s Click and Drop service. You just go online, print off your label and drop the parcel off at one of over 14,000 locations - a post office or one of the many parcel post boxes. You can even arrange to have regular pickups of your mail, and the system integrates with most of the online selling platforms, making your life that bit easier.

If you register an account with Royal Mail you will have access to lower postage costs, and tracking of your post. For more details take a look at the Royal Mail Click and Drop service page.

A few questions about posting your franked mail

Can I post my franked mail?

Yes, your franked mail can go in a postbox – but in order to do so your franked post must be inside a Royal Mail Approved Metered Posting Envelope (also known as Late meter posting, as these are most frequently used when the postage time has been missed for the day). These can contain up to 30 individually franked items of mail.

If your post won’t fit in one of these envelopes then you’ll have to use a dedicated business post box, one of the Royal Mail parcel post boxes, or simply take it along to your nearest Post Office.

For the latest franking prices and guidelines, take a look at our website.

How to prepare franked items for post

Franking your mail is undeniably a time and money saver, but the machine is only as good as the operator, so there are rules to follow!
If you punch in the wrong details you might overpay or underpay, leading to unnecessary cost and delays in your post. For collection by Royal Mail you should use the specified trays and bags for collection depending upon the size and class of the post.

How do I frank a letter and prepare for posting?

Preparation is everything and having a system in place that everyone follows will reduce errors and missed deliveries. The best way to prepare your letters is to sort them firstly into postage class, size, and destination. Make sure the addresses face upwards, and that the franking mark is on the top right hand side corner of your post.

Keep these bundled together using elastic bands to prevent them from getting mixed up with other mail. Make sure you’re using the right mail pouch for your post – red pouches for 1^st Class, Green for 2^nd Class, and White for International mail.

Use the right mail bags for your post

You should prepare your parcels by placing them inside the mail bags supplied by Royal Mail. These will be marked either 1^st or 2^nd Class, so make sure the right parcels go into the right bags – and remember the maximum weight per bag is 11kg – do not exceed this limit.

Special Delivery Guaranteed and International tracking and signature services

If you have franked Special Delivery Guaranteed and International tracking and signature services mail, keep it separate from other mail. Make sure the pouch you are using for this mail is correctly labelled for this type of delivery, and seal it.

You can order trays and bags free of charge from Royal Mail >>

Mistakes can lead to your mail being delayed, or lost, and Royal Mail will charge an admin fee for these mistakes. If your mail was franked or packaged incorrectly (i.e. a 2nd Class mail item in a 1st Class postage bag), you will be charged the difference.