What is Mailmark?

What is Mailmark and what can Mailmark do for businesses?

In the past few years, Royal Mail has invested over £80m introducing Mailmark technology. This game-changing shake-up of traditional mail and franking services has the potential to save businesses significant sums of money every year, as well as providing faster and more efficient service.

But with all this said, what exactly is Mailmark franking? What other services does Mailmark offer? And, how can small and medium-sized businesses utilise this technology?

What is Mailmark franking?

Mailmark franking updates the traditional method of franking mail with a new generation of machines that offer cheaper postage. The machine applies a 2D barcode, in the address area, containing the sender’s account number and details.

This barcode is significantly easier for Royal Mail’s sorting machines to read, rather than the older-style franking system where the machines have to read the printed account number.

For Royal Mail, this makes customer billing faster, more accurate and more efficient. Royal Mail is passing on these savings to customers and offering lower postage costs for businesses using Mailmark. This is also being used as a means to incentivise the commercial sector to switch to Mailmark franking.

What are Mailmark tracking services?

Mailmark can also refer to a service to track individual items of mail through the Royal Mail delivery network, using a 2D barcode applied by the sender.

But this barcode is different.

To get Mailmark tracking services, the barcode you’re adding must contain the recipient’s address and, like billing with Mailmark franking, it allows Royal Mail’s sorting machines to sort and process items using only the information contained in the barcode.

This system is much more efficient than the sorting machines trying to read each printed or handwritten address and postcode, and greatly reduces the margin for error in the sorting process. Like Mailmark franking, Royal Mail is passing on these savings to businesses using the service.

However, in order to benefit from Mailmark, businesses need to have the software to generate the barcodes, they will need to be posting their own mail and, most importantly, they will need to ensure the addresses they generate exactly match those in the Royal Mail address file (PAF). As a result, Mailmark is mostly being utilised by big businesses, processing hundreds of thousands of letters each year because it’s quite an investment.

How can Postworks help?

Postworks are working to change this and make Mailmark services available to all small and medium-sized businesses.

Postworks offer an award winning online platform where customers upload their mail online; we then check the address in the Royal Mail address file, print it and hand it over to Royal Mail for delivery.

Each letter, can be tracked online by the sender. This service can be used by businesses sending one letter or one-thousand letters.

Find out more about online franking here.

The Future of Mail

Mailmark has been an instrumental move on the part of Royal Mail to update increasingly outdated and archaic methods of sending mail; however, it is mostly being used by big companies with the volume, finances and infrastructure to invest in the new technology. In an environment where businesses generate 90% of mail in the UK, Postworks offer services to ensure all businesses can enjoy innovation, efficiency and cost reductions, regardless of their size.

Before you buy a Mailmark franking machine

Other articles that might be of interest are the Hidden costs of franking machines and 3 franking machine alternatives.