Save Even More With Business Mail Advanced
If your business is sending bulk mailings of over 250 letters of the same class to UK addresses via a franking machine, then you could make even more substantial savings on your postage costs with the Royal Mails Business Mail Advanced.
What is Business Mail Advanced?
Made available from April 2015, Business Mail Advanced is a unique service available for businesses using a Mailmark franking machine to send their mail. When using this service, businesses will benefit from even further discounts on their franked mail. In order to qualify for Business Mail Advanced, your business must meet certain criteria. This includes:
- Sending bulk mailings of 250 Standard Letter items or more of either 1st or 2nd Class.
- Sending mail to addresses within the UK (Rep. Ireland is not included).
- Your letters must be prepared so that the address and postcode can be read and verified by Royal Mail’s automated technology.
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR) address specification is recommended.
- Royal Mail requires certain areas of the mail piece to have no markings which are called clear zones. Royal Mail print barcodes on each item in these areas to assist the sorting process.
- Your letters must be presented in mail trays, upside down and facing the front of the trays, supplied by Royal Mail.
- Your letters must be separated into 1st & 2nd Class.
- Your letters must show a licence number which is usually applied when your franking machine franks a letter.
- Letters must be a minimum size of 145mm x 110mm.
- Letters must be a maximum of 240mm x 165mm.
- Letters must have a thickness between 0.25mm and 5mm.
- Collection is free: if there are less than 4,000 items before 12PM same day collection OR if there are 4,000 items 24 hours notice is required.
What are the savings available on Business Mail Advanced?
If you meet the criteria set out by Royal Mail and are using the Business Mail Advanced service, then you will have the potential to make even more substantial savings when sending your 1st and 2nd class letters. The more mail that you send, the more money that you save. Take a look at the table below to see the prices you can achieve for qualifying mail.
Class | Mailing Volume | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
*Prices quoted exclude VAT. VAT charged at 20%. | ||||||
0-249 | 250-999 | 1000-2499 | 2500-9999 | 2500-9999 | 25000+ | |
1st Class* | 75.0p | 58.5p | 57.5p | 56.2p | 55.0p | 53.8p |
2nd Class* | 48.0p | 37.8p | 37.1p | 36.3p | 35.6p | 35.0p |
VAT & Business Mail Advanced
Business Mail Advanced is subject to VAT. For further information visit www.royalmail.com/VAT
First of all you will need to frank your mail as normal using the discounted Business Mail Advanced postage rates that are stored within the franking machine.
As the Royal Mail process your mail, their sorting machines will read the meter license number information that is stored within the 2D Mailmark barcode franking impression. These machines will check the letter for size, weight and address accuracy. The Royal Mail will then verify the discount on a letter by letter basis for every piece of your mail that is automatically sorted. Any letters that fail to be automatically sorted are priced at Franked Meter Standard Tariff prices.
If you are sending more than 250 letters per day via Business Mail Advanced then the discount will be already allocated in the prices that your franking machine frank. However some items may not qualify for the postage discount, meaning that the underpayment will be taken from your franking machines postage account.
If you are sending more than 1,000 letters per day via Business Mail Advanced and qualify for a Volume Related discount, then the rebate will be applied to your franking machines postage account.
At the end of each month an invoice statement will be sent to you so that your business can verify the transactions in your franking machines postage account.
As the Royal Mail’s sorting machines identify any Business Mail Advanced products used, the sorting machines will also identify other key details about the franked impression which includes the price paid and the date. Every day the Royal Mail will calculate the amount paid (including any paid VAT) and send this relevant information to the franking machine manufacturer.
At the end of each month you will receive an invoice statement which will include an automated VAT invoice which allows you to claim back your VAT. This along with any rebate relating to volume related discount will be refunded back in to your franking machines postage account.
At the end of every month an invoice will be received showing you how much you have posted using Business Mail Advanced and showing any adjustments (+/-) that have been made. This invoice will allow you to see:
- Daily posted volumes by class.
- The level of volume related discount achieved each day.
- Identify when Business Mail Advanced discounts were not achieved.
- Detailed adjustment summaries (+/-).
- VAT details for your business accounts.
