Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: levine@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Leonard P Levine) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Why do Telcos Use Window Envelopes for Payments Message-ID: Date: 3 Mar 91 03:24:43 GMT Sender: news@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Mr. News) Reply-To: levine@csd4.csd.uwm.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 30 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 170, Message 6 of 13 Originator: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Nntp-Posting-Host: hub.eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu Many of us do not know that the cost of mailing a nine-digit bar coded envelope that has the five virtical stripes is $0.27, not $0.29. The nine digit code decreases postal cost, the window save sorting and searching and you save $0.02. Maybe someone will post this someday where various people can see it. By the way, there is at least one program available (for the PC) that will permit the appropriate bar codes to be printed on an envelope by a laser printer as a part of the addressing mode. Program costs $50, savings $0.02; so you have to use it 2500 times to make it pay off. | Leonard P. Levine e-mail levine@cs.uwm.edu | | Professor, Computer Science Office (414) 229-5170 | | University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Home (414) 962-4719 | | Milwaukee, WI 53201 U.S.A. FAX (414) 229-6958 | [Moderator's Note: The thing you overlooked was the *minimum pieces per mailing* requirement to get the 27 cent rate. You must mail (I think) 500 pieces or more at a time. The mail has to be taken already sorted by zip code to the post office. You cannot just drop it in a mailbox. I think the postage has to be affixed by meter rather than postage stamp. There are a lot of catches; essentially only very large mailers (this includes telco's outbound mail) are eligible to get the 27 cent rate or find it worth their time. PAT]