How do you ship trays of mail to remote post offices?

[JustinB]

How do you guys ship trays of mail to remote post offices? If I want to get the DDU discount on mail after I check it in at my local BMEU I have to ship it along with a copy of my 8125 form to that particular post office. How do you guys package and ship EMM trays? Put it in a bigger box? Band it with banding straps and stick a shipping label right on the tray sleeve? Something else?

Thanks!

 

[MailGuru]

It can be done in a couple of ways, but, you have to look in to which way is the most cost efficient.

First of all, you can actually use the USPS (yes, really!). It's called "Priority Mail Open & Distribute" (PMOD). You place your trays in either yellow priority mail sacks, or priority mail boxes (both provided by wherever you get your postal equipment from). Your cost is by the weight of the sack or box, and, which zone it is going into. Depending on how heavy your mail is, and, how far you have to ship it, it is possible to get your mail to it's destination faster, while paying less over all postage (don't forget, inside those trays, which are inside the PMOD sacks or boxes, you are getting a DDU destination entry discount).

Secondly, you can have a third party private shipper (any trucking company) transport to the DDU (we usually use Fed-X Freight).

Thirdly, if the DDU's are local, you can have any courier service transport for you, or, even Uncle Billy in the back of his pickup truck or van.

You just have to figure out which way works best for you.

 

[JustinB]

I just shipped 2 emm trays from the midwest to Washington State. It didn't weight enough to justify fedex freight (who we use for freight) but it was still annoying to have to find/make boxes for 24" long trays. It looks like Fedex charged me around $50 each to ship them, and the PMOD program to a zone 8 from here would be $42.33 each for EMM Trays. A slight savings...

 

[MailGuru]

Yep, you have to check in to it, depending on the total weight of your mail (the PMOD sacks or boxes), and, how far you need to ship it. In some instances, the cost savings doesn't warrant the added trouble and expense to ship down to the DDU. Sometimes it better to ship a larger quantity to the DSCF, or, DNDC

 

[MailGuru]

Another added benefit of using the USPS's PMOD method is, I'm pretty sure, you don't have to fill out an 8125 Drop Ship form. It's been years since we've done it, but, I don't think you have to do that extra step. The purpose behind the 8125 is to make sure no one has tampered with the mail between the time you checked it in at your Business Mail Entry Unit, and, the time it arrives at the Destination Unit (Uncle Billy did not add a bunch of additional mail pieces during transit). In private carrier situations, your mail is weighed upon arrival at the DDU/DSCF/DNDC to make sure it is the exact same weight that left the BMEU as indicated on the 8125. Since the USPS themselves are the ones transporting the mail, there is no need to verify that someone has done a misdeed.