Mail Presort Providers – Rightsizing Your Equipment As Volumes Fall

Declining Volumes Require Future Planning

The volume of First-Class letters entering the mail stream, a staple of presort mail service providers, has declined over the past several years. Between 2008 and 2023, the volume of transactional mail sent and received by households decreased by approximately 50%.

The biggest contributor to this drop in volume is digital delivery. Compounding the situation, a cumulative increase in postage rates of over 30% since August 2021 pressures mailers to mitigate these costs. Companies send fewer bills, notices, and statements to their customers via postal mail every year.

As a result, some presort companies may maintain excess capacity. Presort companies should not count on a wish that the volume they used to process will return. It is time to consider rightsizing presort operations. A decision about the adequate scanning and sorting equipment needed to support current clients may be forthcoming … (click to read more)