A postage meter prints postmarks having the value of postage. This machine reserved for professional use is useful for small volumes of mailings and becomes essential for bulk mailings.
What are the advantages of this equipment for a company?
Win time
Since the postage meter is intended to stamp the envelopes or even take out a postage label for the parcels, the mail manager in the company no longer spends long hours in queues at the Post Office. In addition, he no longer needs to stick the stamps on the envelopes, a time-consuming and repetitive activity.
Save money
The machine weighs parcels and envelopes with great precision, thus avoiding the sender from paying a high additional cost. In addition, discounts on the price of postage (2 to 3 cents per item on average) are granted by the postal administration. Such discounts are interesting because sending a letter is more and more expensive, more about 10% each year. Thus, for a simple letter, you have to pay in 2021 between €1.06 (economy rate) to €1.28 (priority rate).
From January 1, 2022, the postal rates will increase to €1.43 for the priority letter, €1.16 for the green letter and €1.14 for the ecopli, which will make this office equipment all the more useful to cushion this increase.
Personalize your mailings
Franking machines allow you to put the name and address of the company on the envelope or even an advertising block.
Ease of use
To frank a letter, simply place it in the slot of the machine. The machine keeps in memory the postal rates in force and the user must select the type of sending (letter followed, registered letter…). An input tray is also provided on most models which allows many envelopes to be loaded at one time.
Simplified invoicing
No tracking is required as the daily cost of postage is sent to the postal services via the internet. Daily and monthly machine records facilitate postage billing.
Which franking machine to choose?
The tpMac and the pMac
Companies sending no more than 30 letters per day can choose the very small franking machine ( tpMac ). Up to 200 items, the postage meter for intermediate volume ( pMac ) is suitable.
tpMac machines and pMac machines have options that make life easier for users, such as:
– A scale, – A touch screen, – A folder-sorter, – The possibility of selecting your advertising message.
Namely: below 15 folds per day, renting a tpMac is not profitable.
The Intelligent Franking Machine or MAi
The smart franking machine is a sophisticated machine perfectly suited to businesses sending large numbers of mail. Indeed, this franking machine is capable of processing up to 1000 letters daily and has many interesting features, in addition to those present on the tpMac and pMac franking machines:
– Automated processing for chain postage without manual intervention. – The possibility of automatic enveloping of letters. – The presence of several weighing platforms on some MAIs makes it possible to manage several formats and thicknesses simultaneously. It is no longer necessary to sort the mail.
You will find all the technical characteristics of automatic franking machines approved by La Poste (processing capacity, available options, number of user accounts and storable tasks, etc.) in this guide: https://tarifs-postaux.fr/machine-a -frank.htm
Is it possible to buy his franking machine?
In France, the purchase of a franking machine is prohibited, because the Post office has a monopoly. Only rental is authorized from 5 dealers who have received approval from the CAMA (Commission d'Agrément des Machines à Franchir): Quadient (formerly Neopost), Satas, Frama, Francotyp and Pitney Bowes. Moreover, the rental contract is a three-party contract between La Poste, the dealer and the customer.
Note: the average rental price ranges from €1 to €10 excluding tax per day, for the most sophisticated franking machines. This cost is amortized by the savings made on mailings and the time saved to free up general service staff for other tasks.
