Postal returns « veridata

Archive for the ‘Postal returns’ Category

Direct Mail and Traying Up

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

Is the process of ‘traying up’ as efficient as you would want it to be? Is your system automated, pre-trayed and pre-sorted? By a slight extension to the use of CodEffect 2dbar code, used by us to process returned and undelivered mail, you can create automated traying. This can considerably improve efficiencies in the presentation of your mail to your carrier (s) and save you money

The efficiencies and reduced costs gained by CodEffect in the processing of returned and undelivered mail is a ‘no brainer’ and could save you a considerable amount of money.

The responsible handling of all yours, or your customers returned mail is good for your brand image, and good for the environment, it ticks all the ‘green’ boxes and cuts carbon footprint.

Our service also helps you to comply with PAS2020, Royal Mail’s Sustainable Mail, and the EU Directives on Landfill that all waste paper is disposed of correctly, no more land fill allowed for this kind of material.

As an inclusive part of our service we recycle all waste paper.

Posted in 'Gone away' mail, Carbon Footprint, Catalogues, CodEffect 2d bar code, DMA, Direct Mail, Environmental responsibility, PAS2020, Postal returns, Recycling paper, Sustainable Mail | No Comments »

Direct Mail and Public Perception

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Paper has been identified as a material where reduced waste and greater recycling can yield significant environmental benefits.

The Government has already concluded voluntary producer responsibility agreement to promote, in particular, increased recycling magazines and direct mail the Periodical Publishers Association (PPA) and the Direct Marketing Association (DMA).

Add in Newspapers and these three waste streams are estimated to amount to about 3.6 million tonnes (which would equate to about 14% of total household waste).

Direct marketing material estimated to account for approximately just 2% of this but the public perceive it to be much higher because it is so visible. More and more consumers are concerning themselves with environmental and social issues and 53% of UK and 66% of US consumers have considered switching brand due to corporate social responsibility. 51% said they or their family had boycotted a company because its products damage the environment.

For companies that send out large mailings our service helps to address corporate social responsibility and the issue of ‘producer responsibility’ in that all waste paper generated is disposed of properly. 80% of the carbon footprint for a piece of mail is in this ‘end of life’ solution. It also helps with BSI Standard PAS2020, Sustainable Mail and new EU directives on landfill,

Public perception about the much maligned ‘Junk Mail’ is skewed because it is so visible and in the home but opting out is all or nothing and who has not at sometime been prompted to make purchase from direct mail?

Protect your brand, reduce your carbon footprint, and save shed loads of money just call us now.

Posted in 'Gone away' mail, Carbon Footprint, Catalogues, CodEffect 2d bar code, DMA, Direct Mail, Environmental responsibility, PAS2020, Postal returns, Sustainable Mail | No Comments »

Wrong Delivery Addresses Cost Businesses 146m

Tuesday, April 13th, 2010

12 April 2010 by Jim Williams – © Hellmail.co.uk

Incorrect delivery addresses cost online UK businesses over £146m every year, according to a study released by Worcester-based IT firm Postcode Anywhere this week.

The Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) and Postcode Anywhere report found that every year 5.8 million items ordered online fail to deliver first time because of an error in the address.

Postcode Anywhere MD Guy Mucklow said: “It’s shocking that in this day and age we still can’t seem to fill out our addresses accurately. But the problem doesn’t lie with the customer: more often it’s a result of poorly-put-together online forms and ill-conceived data capture.

“E-commerce businesses are shooting themselves in the foot if they take shortcuts with their address forms. According to our results, every delivery that fails due to an incorrect address costs an average £25.50 to put right, through refunds, redeliveries and wasted man-hours.

“Averaged out, current levels of delivery inefficiency add 70p to the cost of every single parcel dispatched in the UK, and 75p for every delivery.

“Clearly, there is a strong argument for e-tailers to take more care in how they collect customer information. It even affects customer service levels: as consumers, we’ve probably all experienced the frustrating scenario of being forced to select a US state from a drop-down box, or abbreviate words because they won’t fit in the fields.

“While we’ve learnt missed delivery levels are high, it also seems likely that even more customers will never go through with the order in the first place if they meet with a particularly troublesome form.

“Solutions do exist which make the purchase process quicker for customers, and ensure addresses are captured accurately and easily. In fact, by installing technology that auto-fills an address from a UK postcode – such as that available from Postcode Anywhere – e-commerce vendors can sidestep these problems altogether.

“Postcodes collected from online forms cannot be underestimated – they’re even useful for delivery drivers’ sat-navs.

“We asked our customers, and two thirds of them said they’d noticed a reduction in the number of items lost in the post after implementing address auto-fill technology. Over 70% agreed it reduced shopping cart abandonments.

“But as this study shows, although many of the big names in e-commerce are wise to the benefits of address auto-fill and validation, a significant percentage of vendors can’t see what they’re missing.”

The research made findings representing more than 12 million online consumers, 3.5 million active online shoppers and almost 800 million home deliveries.

For information about Postcode Anywhere’s award-winning range of UK and international address auto-fill and validation software, visit www.postcodeanywhere.com

Posted in 'Gone away' mail, DMA, Direct Mail, Postal returns, Sustainable Mail | No Comments »

Cut the cost of returned mail handling and make your customers happy

Friday, April 9th, 2010

Would you like to reduce the cost of handling returned mail and enhance the service you offer your customers? Veridata established in 1996 provides a dedicated, automated and fast turn around data capture for returned and undelivered mail. We have the capacity to process large volumes at a competitive price and the ROI is substantial.

Our cost is more than met by the savings made, helps to meet the requirements of PAS2020 and Sustainable Mail and includes the safe destruction and recycling of all waste paper.

Licensed to process CodEffect 2d barcode, a powerful method of encoding large amounts of data and successfully used by HMRC and Tesco. Since using it, the latter have seen a 50% reduction in its operational costs for returned mail over the last six months.

Attracting a lower charge rate to capture than standard alpha/numeric data, we can return the data files on a daily basis if required. We tailor our service to save you money.

Posted in 'Gone away' mail, Carbon Footprint, Catalogues, CodEffect 2d bar code, DMA, Direct Mail, Environmental responsibility, PAS2020, Postal returns, Recycling paper, Returned and Undelivered Mail, Sustainable Mail | No Comments »

Royal Mail – A poisoned challice?

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

The final selection for a successor for Adam Crozier, chief executive at Royal Mail, is underway. Crozier is to begin a new post with ITV, but with Royal Mail about to step up its plans for survival; Crozier’s successor will have much to contend with including difficult industrial relations and a declining letters market.
According to the Press Association, Kate Swann, chief executive with WH Smith chief, is being tipped as the leading contender. In March 2009, Donald Brydon became a Non-Executive Director of the Royal Mail Group, replacing Allan Leighton. Royal Mail has seen several changes at the top in recent years but with now faces a real battle to retain its share of the D2D market to offset the decline in stamped mail, some of which has already been lost to rivals. Hellmail.co.uk (05 April 2010) http://www.hellmail.co.uk

Whoever takes this job is going to have a tough job on their hands, but unless someone drags this organisation into the real world I cannot see it surviving in its present form. The competition is hotting up and once the dust has settled on the election whoever is in charge will have to address the issue. It still raises the question as to who would want to invest in a business which EU rules force to run at a loss.

They have to make savings and a good start would be looking at their returned mail handling process, and the committment Adam Crozier gave in Copenhagen to cut their carbon footprint.

Posted in DMA, Direct Mail, Postal returns, Royal Mail, Sustainable Mail | No Comments »

2008 Alistair Darling today confirmed that the Landfill Tax will rise by £8 per tonne each year from next month, as part of his first Budget as Chancellor.

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

Landfill Tax will, as expected, be £32 per tonne from April 1, 2008.

2010 £48 per tonne

Mr Darling said within a Budget, which was given a green tint thanks to a pledge on plastic bags, that the Landfill Tax will, as expected, be £32 per tonne from April 1, 2008.

The tax – working with other measures – has been successful with overall quantities of waste recorded at landfill sites registered for the tax falling by around 26%.

It is seen as the key driver of the UK’s move away from using landfill disposal – and the main hope of meeting European waste targets under the Landfill Directive in 2010, 2013 and 2020.

Wednesday 12 March 2008 Legislation News

Posted in 'Gone away' mail, Carbon Footprint, DMA, Direct Mail, Environmental responsibility, PAS2020, Postal returns, Recycling paper, Returned and Undelivered Mail, Sustainable Mail | No Comments »

Save up to 50% on your returned and ‘gone way’ mail

Monday, March 29th, 2010

We are in partnership with Arbutus Ridge to process their CodEffect 2d barcode, a powerful method of encoding large amounts of data and successfully used by HMRC and Tesco. The latter have seen a 50% reduction in its operational costs for returned mail. It attracts a lower charge rate to capture than standard alpha/numeric data and we can return the data files on a daily basis if required.
Veridata now offers this encrypted 2d bar-coding system which means that capture of name & address, campaign codes etc. is considerably cheaper and enables us to offer our customers great savings for processing their returned mail.

CodEffect capture solution offer a fixed charge, regardless of the amount of data captured. The service has two distinct elements – simple data capture from returns and data verification & enhancement. If required it can explain the reason for returns, which can be run against a number of industry wide data sets.
The discreet two-dimensional barcode can be set in various places in or outside the envelope

For the “core” data capture service the price is simply based on the number of scans performed – the amount of data captured is irrelevant. There is no charge for the software or the creation of the barcode.
Also included in the cost is the destruction and responsible disposal of all waste paper, which is recycled locally; reduces your carbon footprint. Our service also helps you to comply with EU Directives on Landfill PAS2020 and Royal Mail’s Sustainable Mail.

Technical Requirements
Veridata in partnership with Arbutus Ridge will provide all software required to manage the printing of the CodEffect 2d barcodes free of charge and will work alongside the Client and chosen print company to install and test the process. Full technical requirements will be produced on agreement of contract.
Supplied as Windows DLL’s, which you can integrate using Visual Basic

Data validation data capture, and opt out solutions

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Today met with the MD of data8 a dynamic data management company based in Ellesmere Port www.data-8.co.uk.

Looking forward to working with them as their product(s) especially their on-line data validation solution can add value to our service and would be of interest to many of our customers.

The integrity of data can have a huge impact on any direct mailing campaign and indeed on any large mailing undertaken in the private or public sectors.

Our service provides data capture of Returned and Gone Away Mail and helps to cleanse our customer’s data bases, saving money and ensuring safe destruction and recycling of all waste paper.

Data validation can supply so much more valuable information checking against a raft of suppression files, giving specific reasons for the ‘gone aways’ and trace address information.

See also opt out solutions allowing customers to choose which companies they do not want to receive mail from. http://www.optoutlive.co.uk/dm/directmail.aspx#

The whole debate around ‘junk mail’ (Advertising Mail) is highly emotive but so many of us buy from direct mail and welcome some but not all of it. According to the DMA, UK consumers generate over £25 billion worth of sales from Direct Mail every year so it is fair to say that most people appreciate the information and special offers they receive by post.

Posted in 'Gone away' mail, Direct Mail, PAS2020, Postal returns, Recycling paper, Returned and Undelivered Mail | No Comments »

Further Restrictions on Landfill and Returned Mail

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

I am thinking how will this affect the Direct Mail Sector? There are targets set to reduce all waste paper generated by direct mail going to landfill as there is already the issue of ‘producer responsibility’ in that all waste paper generated is disposed of properly. 80% of the carbon footprint for a piece of mail is in this ‘end of life’ solution.

Our service includes safe destruction and recycling of all waste paper and helps meet the requirements of PAS2020 and Sustainable Mail

Consultation on the introduction of restrictions on the landfilling of certain wastes
1. I am writing to invite views on the possible introduction of further restrictions on the landfilling of biodegradable and recyclable wastes in England and Wales.
2. This joint Defra and Welsh Assembly Government consultation is in response to the commitment in the Waste Strategy for England 2007 and the commitment of the Welsh Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing’s written cabinet statement of 2nd December 2009 to consult on whether the introduction of further restrictions on the landfilling of biodegradable and recyclable wastes would make an effective contribution to meeting the objectives set out in the respective waste strategies for England and Wales, of reducing GHG emissions and increasing resource efficiency and in respect of Wales, of decreasing the ecological footprint associated with waste. The consultation aims to obtain the views of interested parties on the policy options presented with a view towards introducing one or more of them into law(s) in England and Wales.
3. This is a first stage consultation on the options under consideration for restricting wastes from landfill. It is intended to be a high-level consultation to identify preferred option(s) which could be taken forward if desirable, practical and affordable. If Government decides change is desirable a second stage consultation will follow on the preferred option(s) and the way any restriction or requirement would be introduced and who the onus would fall upon and accompanied by draft Regulations to implement these option(s).
4. The following documents may be found on Defra’s website at:
www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/consult/landfill-restrictions/index.htm
and on the Welsh Assembly Government’s website at:
www.wales.gov.uk/consultations / www.cymru.gov.uk/ymgynghoriadau

Issued: 2010-03-18
Consultation starts: 2010-03-18
Consultation closes: 2010-06-10

Posted in 'Gone away' mail, Carbon Footprint, DMA, Direct Mail, Environmental responsibility, PAS2020, Postal returns, Returned and Undelivered Mail, Sustainable Mail | No Comments »

The Benefits of using a 2d bar code

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

We have are licensed by Arbutus Ridge to process the CodEffect 2d barcode, a powerful method of encoding large amounts of data. It has been used by HMRC for some time now and is completely secure.

It attracts a lower charge rate to capture than standard alpha/numeric data and we can return the data files on a daily basis if required.

CodEffect has 2 distinct elements – simple data capture from returns and data verification/enhancement. These are 2 distinct and separate services, designed so that users can ‘buy-in’ to both services, however this is not mandatory.

Veridata through Arbutus Ridge will provide all software required to manage printing of the CodEffect 2d barcodes free of charge and will work alongside the Client and chosen print company to install and test the process. Full technical requirements will be produced on agreement of contract

The cost of processing your returns, and capturing additional valuable marketing information, is greatly reduced by using this intelligent 2dbar code.

For further information on how you can dramatically reduced costs and stay ahead of the competition call: -

Tim Craig on 01244 350700

Posted in 'Gone away' mail, Catalogues, DMA, Direct Mail, PAS2020, Postal returns, Returned and Undelivered Mail, Royal Mail, Sustainable Mail | No Comments »