Mail Presort Providers – Rightsizing Your Equipment

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%. 1 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.

Today, we will examine factors that presort service providers face when considering the transition from existing full-scale sorting platforms, which may be larger than necessary, to systems suited to the current mail volumes, specifically the Tritek M Sorter and the Tritek Compact Sorter.

The Right Size Decision

Besides reducing First-Class mail, other factors contribute to the downsizing decision.

Parts and Maintenance: Depending on age, parts for full-scale sorters can be challenging to find. Even if they are readily available, the cost is not going down. Occasionally, equipment manufacturers end support for older platforms, further clouding the maintenance situation. Technicians who can repair and maintain full-scale mail sorters are retiring faster than new technicians can be hired. An aging workforce is a growing concern in the print and mail industry.

Note: Equipment end of life is never an issue with Tritek. We always support our machines, regardless of age or model.

Fewer Workers: The mail services industry is not unlike the aggregate U.S. workforce. A significant number of operators and experienced workers are approaching retirement. In 2022, more than a quarter of the U.S. workforce was 55 or older, up from 14% twenty years earlier. In 2020, for the first time, individuals aged 65 and older outnumbered those aged five years and younger, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.  2

Production Floor Geography: Mail service owners and managers look beyond sorters for rightsizing. They also consider the space they occupy. Tritek sorter technology requires less floor space. New equipment allows for a move to a smaller, less expensive space. Presort service providers can use the realized space for additional services. Relocation decisions are frequently driven by many factors. Space allocated to mail production is just one element that businesses must consider.

Redeployment of Resources: With space made available by downsizing mail sorting equipment, now is an ideal time to explore the on-demand mail and print services market. Mail sorting companies are looking for ways to replace shrinking revenues from the mail sorting business.

New Technology: Advancements in mail processing technology, including automated sorting, threat detection, and streamlined mail operations, make sorters more efficient and aligned with the goals of the mail presort service. The Tritek M sorter is a full-featured mail sorter perfect for commercial, inbound, and presorted mail.

TRITEK Presort Performance

Even with significant personnel changes in leadership positions at the Postal Service, analysts expect postage rates to continue to increase at least once and most likely twice yearly. Taking advantage of postal discounts and incentives is more critical than ever. The Tritek M Sorter offers a flexible approach to leveraging presort postal discounts, using USPS-certified software to sort mail based on ZIP Codes and apply accurate postal barcodes. The M Sorter is compatible with most types of mail, including postcards, magazines, poly wrap, letters, and newspapers up to 12″ x 17″ by ¾” thick.

Tritek’s incredible flexibility in material handling may enable postal sort operations to expand beyond letter mail. Companies may discover new revenue streams or find opportunities to expand customer relationships by offering a wider set of services.

The Tritek sortation hardware scans the envelope, searching for address and barcode information. Mail diverts to the proper bin for the presort schema based on the ZIP Code. The machine moves correspondence from the containers to mail trays, sorted, and ready for the post office at a reduced postage rate.

One of the M Sorter’s most outstanding features is its modular design. Purchase the features required for current presort work, then add features, and increase scalability anytime. Modules and features include dual-sided imaging, thickness and double detection, in-line printing, labeling, mail opening, and sorting bins.

The Tritek M Sorter is energy efficient and environmentally friendly. This feature reduces energy consumption, helping presort mail service provider organizations achieve sustainability goals. Environmentally conscious clients appreciate Tritek’s energy-saving achievements. Even with reduced energy consumption, M Sorter owners and managers profit from a processing speed of up to 30,000 pieces per hour. The M Sorter is the fastest mixed mail sorting machine available.

The Tritek Compact Sorter lives up to its name. It is scalable and versatile, and at less than 12 feet long, it fits where other sorters cannot.

Modular in design, the Tritek Compact is customizable to meet specific needs. Features such as dual-sided imaging, thickness and doubles detection, in-line printing, in-line labeling, in-line opening, and additional sorting bins are available. With speeds up to 15,000 mail pieces per hour, the Tritek Compact makes mailrooms run smoothly and efficiently.

A Long History of Mail Automation

Since 1988, Tritek has engineered, patented, and field-proven production mail automation solutions to enhance productivity and mailroom efficiency for mail service providers and in-plant mail centers nationwide. Tritek engineers understand the challenges faced by mail and presort service providers. Tritek’s expanding menu of mail services includes Biohazard Screening, Digital Email Delivery, Database Management, Returned Mail Processing, Inbound Mail, Presorted Mail, and Parcel Processing. Their clients include mail service and print providers, Fortune 500 companies, government, educational institutions, financial services, healthcare, insurance, and fulfillment.

1 https://www.uspsoig.gov/reports/white-papers/analysis-historical-mail-volume-trends
2 https://cri.georgetown.edu/the-aging-of-america-a-changing-picture-of-work-and-retirement