CodEffect was originally designed to perfectly capture name and address information and to reduce the capture cost. However, when customers began adding their own data into the encoded barcode, this additional information became a great way to streamline many back office functions. For example, some applications our customers use CodEffect on include updating customer databases, validating the postal addresses, segmenting documents based on their commercial value and speeding up the process of collecting survey information.

Veridata is a division of Totalpostplc                   www.totalpost.com

Tesco Clubcard was the first customer. The CodEffect process reduced Tesco’s cost of capturing returned letter data by 50% – read the Case study. Look in the window of your next Clubcard envelop and you will see two little square boxes, they are the CodEffect barcodes. Since its beginning, CodEffect has continued to grow and develop. The software now has features for letters, packets and parcels, encryption, automated data feeds into accounting, database and document management systems.

In 2008, CodEffect was shortlisted at the World Mail Awards – the Oscars of the postal industry – in the Technology category.

Veridata gone away and returned mail handling are licensed by Arbutus Ridge  as users of CodEffect. We thoroughly recommend this bar code it can save considerable amount of money and provide valuable marketing information.

We recycle all waste paper that results from processing, which helps to lower your carbon footprint. 80% of the carbon footprint of a returned mail piece is in the end of life solution

We include catalogues in this context.

Most direct marketers would agree that embracing best environmental practice is a sensible idea. There are rewards for doing so but whether you agree that PAS2020 an onerous standard or a good discipline, the potential for reduced costs, reduced waste and increased campaign performance makes good business sense.

There also the benefit of Royal Mail’s ‘Sustainable Mail’, which offers postal services at a discounted rate if a company is proved to be compliant with PAS 2020. This can save mailers up to 4.7 percent off the standard mail tariff.

As a company dedicated to processing returned and gone way mail since 1996 we have to declare an interest in hoping that volumes of direct mail do not decline too quickly. In our part we have reduced the returns/’gone aways’ of one our larger customers (at their peak mailing 140 million pieces a year) from over 6% to under 2% saving them thousands of pounds.

Our aim is to minimise waste and thereby cut cost, by removing unnecessary volume, and by ensuring the ‘end of life’ solution where 80% of the carbon footprint occurs is addressed responsibly. We recycle all waste paper. It can also provide brand protection and reduce the opportunity for fraud – overlaying information from returns can identify hot spots/addresses and help to mitigate identity theft.

Taking care of your returns also offers a safety net from consumer backlash, because despite the economic times, consumers and the media are still being tough on brands that do business while ignoring the environmental impact.

Congratulations from Tim & Kirsty Craig at Veridata

David Hymers has been awarded an MBE for “services to Industry and International Trade” in the 2010 Queen’s Birthday Honours List.  David is Chairman & Managing Director of Totalpost Services Plc, a well respected privately owned independent market leader specialising in mailroom solutions to Companies in over 18 countries around the world.  The award recognises David’s hard work and commitment in the field of business, & for working with Business Link in the North and also with the management & Vice Chairmanship of an Export Club for Cumbria via UK Trade & Investment.

A surprised, delighted and humbled David said “Whilst I have received the award, I feel it is a testimony to all the employees at Totalpost as I know that without such a great team, we would not be doing so well, so each and every one of the team – in UK/Europe and USA – deserves a share in this recognition and I said so in my acceptance call to Her Majesties representative.”

A spokesperson for Totalpost said “We are delighted for David; the award of MBE is extremely well deserved. David has made a significant contribution to Business and to International Trade and the wider community and he has developed Totalpost Services Plc to ensure it is a substantial force in the mailroom market.”

People whose names are published in The Queen’s Birthday Honours and New Year Honours lists usually receive their award from The Queen at an Investiture in Buckingham Palace. There are usually 20 Investitures held in the Ballroom at the Palace each year. Up to 150 recipients attend each ceremony, and each recipient can nominate three friends or relations to sit in the audience to witness the occasion. The Queen enters the room attended by two Gurkha Orderly Officers, a tradition begun by Queen Victoria in 1876. Also on duty are members of The Queen’s Body Guard of the Yeomen of the Guard, which was created by Henry VII in 1485.

Veridata returned & ‘gone away’ mail handling … a Totalpost Services plc company

With 5.4 billion items of direct mail sent out yearly direct marketers have an ideal opportunity to make a major impact because every tonne of recycled paper saves approximately 17 trees and 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space. The public’s perception is important and organisations such as charities, and companies sending out large amounts of Direct Mail and/or catalogues i.e. the mail order sector should take note that consumers and the media do not like brands that do business while ignoring the environmental impact.

Adopting PAS 2020 best practices makes environmental and economic sense.  Furthermore, cost savings can be made through Royal Mail as they offer postal services at a discounted rate to companies that can prove that they are compliant with PAS 2020, this can save up to 4.7 per cent off the standard mail tariff.

Veridata  helps to meet  corporate social responsibility by processing returned, undelivered and goneway mail, which saves companies considerable amounts of  money. Additional huge savings on returned mail handling can be made by using CodEffect 2d barcode call us to find out more on 44 (0)1925 242360

Direct marketing material estimated to account for approximately 550,000 tonnes of the household waste. Of this, 181,500 tonnes is estimated to be addressed direct mail with the remaining 368,500 tonnes being unaddressed direct marketing material.

At Veridata we process returned and undelivered mail, – i.e. mail sent back with ‘RETURN TO SENDER’ often embellished with more spicy comments! Also mail that is  inaccurately addressed, mail refused and mail for which the postman deems no such address exists. All this mail, if it is one our customers, is returned to the PO Box number on the reverse of the envelope and directed by Royal mail to our premises. We open, sort, scan, and return the information to our customers. This saves them mailing to the same people again. It also provides valuable marketing information, which helps to achieve greater focus on campaign performance.

AND it saves considerable amounts of money.

Just as importantly it helps to lower their carbon footprint and meet their corporate social and environmental responsibility, for included in the cost of or service is the safe destruction and recycling of all the waste paper we process. 80% of the carbon footprint of a piece of mail is in the ‘end of life’ i.e. when it’s dumped. So if you are sending out large amounts of mail or catalogues, you should be talking to us because you too could help the planet and save money. Paper has been identified as a material where reduced waste and greater recycling can yield significant environmental benefits.

When it comes to the subject of Climate Change: If you think you are too small to make a difference try sleeping in a room with a mosquito.

Veridata returned mail handling …a Totalpost Services plc company

Too many companies that send out large quantities of mail/catalogues do not address this issue of corporate social producer responsibility for the ‘end of life’ solution for their undelivered and returned mail.

A contributor to CO2 waste in the UK is, Returned, unwanted and undelivered mail its produces vast amounts of waste paper and 80% of the carbon footprint for a piece of mail is in the ‘end of life’ solution. The DMA’s BSI Standard PAS2020, the Royal Mail’s Sustainable Mail, TNT’s Greenpost and the new EU directives on landfill are going some way to address the issue of ‘producer responsibility’ that all waste paper generated is disposed of acceptably.

Veridata provides a specialist and automated quick turn around service for processing Returned and Undelivered Mail.

It saves money not mailing the same customers again, helps mitigate the opportunities for identity fraud and it is friendly to the environment as all waste is recycled thus reducing carbon footprint.

See article by

Are British Businesses Thinking About Green Issues Enough?

Written by Ben Thornhill

Friday, 16 July 2010 13:27

http://www.tchc.net/blog/38-business-operations/226-are-british-businesses-thinking-enough-about-green-issues

However David Miliband MP, has said that 550 000 tonnes of ‘junk mail’ sent each year is “unacceptable for the environment,” and with the EU land-fill directives coming in to force the need to responsibly process any undelivered mail is now more pressing.

It has long been recognized that the carbon footprint of a Direct Mail piece indicates that 80% of CO2* exposure is at the ‘end-of-life’ stage. Responsible Direct Mailers can help to reduce this by having their returns processed by Veridata. Recycling paper waste has a lower environmental impact than either land-filling or incineration.

Veridata was set up in 1996 to handle and process the returned direct mail of one of the largest credit card issuers in the Europe. We currently provide this service to a variety of mailing companies and the recycle all the waste thus reducing carbon footprint.

* Figures are 1.65 tonnes CO2 per tonne of 100% recycled paper and 2.1 tonnes for virgin paper. These figures include emissions from manufacture, distribution, print process and disposal.

When it comes to having an impact on making a contribution to reduce global warming…………. ‘If you think that you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a room with a mosquito.’

Increased targeting and industry initiatives, combined with growing household recycling levels and increased subscription to the Mailing Preference Service (MPS), have resulted in an overall reduction of 348,600 tonnes of direct marketing material being distributed between the signing of the voluntary agreement in 2003 and the end of 2009.

The amount of direct mail entering landfill has fallen by 79 per cent since 2003, with some 382,698 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions saved by increased recycling activity in 2009 alone – the equivalent of one billion miles driven in a petrol car.

This increase in the levels of recycled direct marketing material also reflects a significant behavioural change over recent years, with levels of domestic recycling across all household waste more than trebling during the past decade. Direct marketing material now accounts for just 0.4 per cent of all non-recycled household waste and Confederation of Paper Industries data suggests that the current levels of recycling for direct mail material outperforms general paper recycling.

Since Defra introduced the recycling targets in 2003, the DMA and Royal Mail have supported a number of industry initiatives to support a wider industry drive towards sustainability, including:

• PAS2020 – guidelines introduced in spring 2009 to gauge the environmental impact of direct marketing activity
• Sustainable® Mail – a Royal Mail service that rewards better-targeted, sustainably produced and easy to recycle direct mail campaigns with lower prices
• Expansion of DMA best practice guidelines to tackle environmental impact, and the introduction of a reduced-cost BSI ISO 14001 certification.

Robert Keitch*, chief of membership and brand at the DMA, said: “The huge volume of direct mail now being recycled is not merely mail that travels straight from doormat to recycling bin. Every year, direct mail generates £16 billion in sales for UK plc. Hitting the Government’s recycling targets shows we can do so without hitting companies’ bottom lines.”

Matthew Neilson, Head of Environmental Solutions, Royal Mail, commented: “The direct marketing industry has made a significant effort to reduce its impact on the environment, and the introduction of initiatives such as the DMA’s PAS2020 and Royal Mail’s Sustainable® Mail product have been instrumental in helping the sector to achieve this recycling goal. However, there is much more that can be done to ensure direct marketers are communicating in as sustainable a fashion as possible.”

The targets apply to posted direct marketing material in England, covering addressed items such as direct mail and unaddressed items including leaflets and inserts.

The report is available to download from 1 April at: www.dma.org.uk/recyclingtargets

* Robert Keitch left the DMA earlier this year

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 CodEffect service has two distinct elements – simple data capture from returns and

data verification & enhancement. If required it can explain the reason for returns by

running them 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 creation of  a barcode.

Also included in the cost is the destruction and responsible disposal of all waste paper, which is recycled locally; this helps reduce 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

For further information please contact

Tim Craig Business Development Director

Tel: 07970 759282 email: tim.craig@veri-data.co.uk

We take for granted the familiar like letter boxes which in the decades following the introduction of the penny post in 1839 were viewed with suspicion, before they became accepted the postman knocked. Did he knock twice and did he ever play Postman’s Knock on his round?

Today there is an average of 75 million letters delivered every day in 1839 there were 76 million delivered in the first year but it soon rose to 350 million a year, that’s a weeks worth now.

I am only guessing but I bet up until the Second World War that they did not have a major issue with returned and undelivered mail? I know they do now and for my own part I hope they continue to do so for it is our raison d’etre for being in business.

I must look up the facts and figures and what impact the introduction of postcodes had on deliveries.