Parcels: Paying with Meters
Meter machines print postage paid on either your mail piece
or an approved label (i.e. meter strip or tape) that you affix to your piece.
Meter machines are leased from commercial manufacturers who cooperate with the U.S.
Postal Service® to enable you to pay for and download postage straight into the
machine and to print it on demand.
Pros: Meters avoid
over stamping by enabling you to print exact postage for most mail classes (all
but Periodicals) and for Extra Services that are hard to account for by stamp.
You can track meter expenditures more easily than stamps and, with some models,
account for usage by department and/or code. Meters help you to calculate
rates automatically without rate charts. There is no fee to apply for a permit
to mail with a postage meter.
Cons: Postage meters
are not available for sale; they must be rented. Most rental agreements lock
users in for many years even though your needs may change. In order to update
rates after a postal rate change, you will need to purchase and install a replacement
chip from your meter vendor. You ‘fill’ your postage meter with funds in advance
and must replenish it before postage runs out to avoid being caught short.
Like stamps and PC Postage®, meter strips are considered ‘live’ postage. You
pay the postage for your shipment when you fill your meter machine, and shipment
is, therefore, already paid when you affix the meter strip to your package.
As a result, mistakes in package preparation can become costly, especially for volume
shippers. For example, when changes need to be made to a shipment after postage
has already been printed, you must submit your complete, legible, unused meter indicia
for refund at a postal retail window within 60 days of the date in the meter stamp.
For additional information, see related articles: “Parcels:
Ways to Pay Postage”, “Parcels:
Paying with Stamps”, “Parcels:
Paying with PC Postage”, and “Parcels:
Paying with Permits.”
Window Book’s postal shipping software—Postal
Package Partner™—supports shippers using stamps by facilitating package
preparation and labeling, postal acceptance, postage management and parcel tracking.