But even with over 50 years of experience in comprehensive direct marketing, print and mail services, Excalibur’s team still turns to industry experts for help. Competitive edge is what keeps them at the top of their game, so they chose to partner with Altrans Postal Solutions, an alliance that dates all the way back to 2008 (under the previous name of WIT Postal Services). Since then, our work has been focused on keeping their innovative approach to direct mail campaigns at the forefront of their industry. 

Expanding Market Reach

Unlike many of its peers, Excalibur has its own pre-sort facility. While this provides some convenience and cost savings, it’s only the first step in optimizing mailing logistics.

“Altrans provides us with logistics services to transport our mailings to various SCFs and NDCs throughout the country, something that we simply don’t have internal resources to accomplish,” explains Tom Mabe, IT Manager and Systems Administrator at Excalibur who’s deeply involved in putting together customer shipments every day. 

Working with Altrans Postal Solutions allows Excalibur to expand its reach and compete on a national scale by improving cost savings, delivery times and localization of pieces. 

“Our partnership with Altrans has virtually eliminated any geographic barriers to our business. We’re able to meet the needs of our customers whether they’re in our own backyard in North Carolina, in the Midwest, Northeast or even the West Coast. ”

The large network of Altrans Postal Solutions carriers allows Excalibur to drop ship mailings to virtually any SCF or NDC in the US, providing that local point of origin that its customers desire.

“Many of our customers, especially universities and non-profits, want their mail to originate from the local market in which their audience lives,” Tom explains. “To maintain trust and credibility with their audiences, it’s vital that the pieces appear to have originated locally.”

Turnaround in Hours, Not Days

When time is of the essence, Altrans always pulls through.

“There have been many times when we’ve received rush jobs or a customer wants to make a last-minute change to their mailing and Altrans has gone above and beyond to make it happen,” says Tom. 

“This is especially true of the political mailers,” adds Ryan Talbert, VP of Client Services at Excalibur. “These campaigns have many moving parts, massive budgets and short deadlines — we’re not talking days, but hours. There would be times when jobs would literally show up on our dock with little to no advanced notice with the expectation that we’d turn them around immediately. Altrans has more than rolled with the punches in these situations, often turning around logistics plans for 15 or more mailings in less than an hour and conducting more same-day turnarounds than I can count.”

This flexibility and ability to execute on a plan quickly and accurately played a critical role during the 2024 elections. There were many times during the election cycle when the volume of pieces coming through Excalibur exceeded its printing capacity. To meet the demand, the company partnered with other local direct mail and printing companies to inkjet the pieces. Excalibur would then coordinate with Altrans to pick up these pieces from the partner vendors as well as Excalibur for delivery to the SCFs. 

“During the 2024 election, we had several different candidate mailers totaling well over 1 million pieces. Altrans not only provided us with a mail plan but also access to fleets with larger vehicles and longer range to accommodate the volume and reach of these mailers,” adds Tom. “By sorting, palletizing and then drop shipping them to various entry points across the US, we were able to maximize the savings for multiple clients.”

A Winning Combination

“Being able to pick up the phone and say ‘we’ve got a 100,000 piece mailer that needs to go out today’ and not only have Altrans make it happen but still be able to save our clients money on that shipment, that’s the kind of support that makes it possible for us to consistently meet the high expectations of our customers,” explains Tom.

“While working with Altrans, I can’t remember ever hearing about issues with shipping and logistics,” Ryan adds. “Altrans makes sure we have the logistics in place to make these mailings happen, especially when clients move up a date or ask for a short turnaround.”

“Altrans has also made it easy for us to simplify the conversation around mail logistics and pricing with our customers,” Ryan continues. “Today’s marketer has so many channels to contend with and isn’t necessarily as educated about the postal service and shipping as they used to be. Altrans provides experienced, full-service logistics planning that eliminates the need to dig into the minutia of how to get the best service and pricing. We’re just confident that it’s a given and so are our customers.”

“A key part of our mission statement is succeeding through partnerships – partnering with our clients, with other mail houses and with our vendors,” Ryan concludes. “It’s so important to us that we’re in win-win situations with everyone and Altrans has been an integral part of our success as well as that of our clients.”

Where are the opportunities to improve on your mailing and logistics services for your clients? Contact us to discuss how partnering with Altrans can give you a competitive advantage and increase your customer satisfaction.

To say Pressworks does “a lot of political mailings” is a subtle way of stating that they reach millions of mailboxes in the critical state of Ohio every election season.

“Altrans has been a lifesaver to me over these past several weeks. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve scheduled a job, canceled a job, rescheduled that same job for the same day, still not mailed that job…now take all of that and multiply it by about a thousand. I don’t know how they did it, but Altrans came through for us each and every time. We couldn’t do what we do without them.”

Jamison Dumas, Mailing Operations Manager

 

Political Mail is a “Special Beast”

In the 6 weeks leading up to the November elections, Pressworks printed and mailed nearly 5 million pieces of political mail all over the highly contested state of Ohio. And that’s on top of its regular print and mail business for the typical busy Fall season.

Jamison Dumas, Mailing Operations Manager, explains that October is already a busy month with marketing departments making their year-end pushes. With 2024 being an election year, it took their workload to a whole new level.

Add to that, the particular nature of political mail.

“Political mail is a special beast,” continues Jamison. “It’s very reactive in nature. Much of the messaging is commentary on a recent event or comment so timing is of the absolute essence.”

“It’s not unusual for an order to come into our designers and the customer to ask if we can get it in the mail that very same day. And while we can’t do that, I can’t tell you how many times I have called Altrans at 2:30 asking if they could get a mailing out the door that day and they made it happen.”

Balancing Cost Savings and Deliverability

In addition to political campaigns, Pressworks works with both government agencies and educational institutions, organizations traditionally known for being budget-conscious. Being able to achieve reasonable in-home delivery times along with savings on postage is a clear advantage for Pressworks, something Altrans has helped them achieve by integrating freight services into the mix.

“We’re able to achieve substantial savings by delivering mail pieces by freight to the postal center closest to their final destinations. In many cases, we’re saving as much as 7 to 10 cents per piece,” Jamison explains. “When you have mailings of 10,000 or more pieces, this becomes a no-brainer.”

In the past, Jamison had used mail consolidators to achieve these kinds of cost savings, but that cost savings came at the sacrifice of in-home dates.

“The problem with consolidators is timing,” says Jamison. “While you’re waiting for the consolidator to amass enough pieces for a shipment, your mailer could be missing a critical in-home window, something especially critical for reactionary pieces like political mailers.”

In fact, the last time Jamison worked with a company that wasn’t using Altrans, election season was a nightmare.

“We were working with a consolidator and honestly, we just couldn’t use them for the political mailings due to the quick timing needed,” he explains. “So we found ourselves hiring temporary drivers and renting trucks to handle the logistics in-house just to get it done. Not only was it stressful, we didn’t have the resources Altrans has so we couldn’t maximize the postage savings for our customers like we do here at Pressworks.”

Expert Advice for Mailers

“Look at the numbers and what best fits your customers’ needs. The cheapest option is not always the best option. Neither is the most expensive. If your customers are like ours, they’re going to prioritize in-home delivery dates and you’re not going to find anyone who can turn things around faster than a third party logistics provider like Altrans,” says Jamison. “I’ve worked with a multitude of logistics options and this has been the most seamless process so far. We are in complete control of the in-home delivery dates and the savings are top notch. ”

If you’re looking for a better solution for your customers’ mailings, or are curious about the potential cost savings a third party logistics provider like Altrans could deliver, contact us today for free consultation.

As shipping and logistics become more efficient and consolidated, your company should be thinking about new options for shipping that can save money, bring efficiency and provide better service for your customers. LTL is one method that can deliver this.

Less-than-truckload or less-than-load shipping (LTL) is used for transporting small freight or mailings when the shipment doesn’t require an entire truck. Typically used for shipments totaling 150-15,000 pounds, the shipper pays for only the portion of the trailer their freight occupies, while other shippers and their shipments fill the rest of the space.

Why Use LTL?

LTL has many advantages over other low-cost mailing solutions like consolidation and co-mingling. Most importantly, it is faster and more trackable than consolidation and co-mingling, so if you have a piece that requires a specific delivery window LTL may be a good solution. LTL is also obviously less expensive than FTL, or full truckload, so if your mailer is substantial, but still not large enough to require an entire trailer, you can still take advantage of the benefits of an expedited shipper through LTL.

What Should I Consider When Opting for LTL?

While LTL is a great option for your mailings, like many aspects of shipping, it pays to know the inner workings of the industry, especially when there’s a handoff to the United States Postal Service. When opting for LTL, consider these three tips:

Choose your carrier wisely. Not all carriers are created equal. Understand what regions they serve and the schedules they keep. Ask if their customer service is 100% self-serve or will you be able to get a person on the phone if you have a question or hit a snag with your shipment. And if you need a hand-off to the USPS, do they understand how to do that (hint: it’s not as simple as it sounds)?

Have your postal documentation in order. One of the most common reasons we see for shipping delays is problems with postal documentation. Whether it’s inaccurate postage, missing forms or pallet labels, problems with your postal documentation can halt your shipment in its tracks. Check and double-check that it’s in order before and during the shipping process.

Consider hiring a mail logistics partner. If you conduct frequent mailings or freight shipments then hiring a mail logistics company might be one of the best investments you can make. As experts in their field, they will ensure that the proper carriers are hired for each job, that documentation is in order, and that each shipment is meticulously tracked from start to finish. Additionally, a top-notch partner will save you time and money by consulting with you to ensure that you’re using the right service for each shipment.If you have questions about LTL shipping or other shipments, please reach out. Altrans Postal Solutions has decades of experience in direct mail planning and shipping logistics, and we’re happy to help.

According to a recent survey by the United States Post Office, 68% of people polled say that direct mail is one of the most credible sources of information in a political campaign. And with $10.4 billion projected to be spent on advertising for this coming election cycle, you can be sure that political mailers will be landing in mailboxes everywhere.

As you (and the candidates) start planning for fall campaigns, here are our top three tips to keep in mind to ensure the best results.

Pick the Right Service

With most mailers being highly targeted and timed, choosing the right service level is essential. If you’re looking for delivery on a specific date, then the faster you can get your pieces into the delivery stream, the better your chances of precise timing. Looking for specific geo-targeting or blanketing a specific region or community? Consider Every Door Direct Mail (known as EDDM) from the United States Postal Service. From your mailing list to your design to your mail delivery services there’s a lot to consider, but there are many companies like this, including Altrans Postal Solutions, that specialize in these services who are ready to assist you.

Pick the Right Carrier

Just like choosing the right service level is essential, so is picking the right carrier. For time-critical pieces, a high-end LTL carrier with a strong reputation for good service is your best choice. But be prepared to get creative, as even these carriers can experience volume overload. Maintaining open communication about your needs and delivery targets can make sure the carrier keeps you informed in the event you need to make alternative arrangements such as delivering the pieces to them rather than relying on standard pickup service.

Plan Well in Advance

As the saying goes, timing is everything, and with mailers, planning in advance, especially for potential pitfalls in schedules, is positively essential for success. From weather delays to excess volume to staffing shortages and holidays, be sure to allow enough time for your piece to make it IN time by padding your schedule for unforeseen circumstances like these.

The Bottom Line

When it comes to political mailers, or any time-critical mailers, planning and knowing your services and carriers are what stand between you and success. Do your research, plan in advance, and communicate with your carriers and customers to set expectations and keep in the know of current factors that could affect your mailings. When in doubt, hire an expert in the field to advise and even manage the job for you. It’s an investment that will surely pay off in the end, in more ways than one.

If you have questions about how to maximize your results for political mail or other shipments, please reach out. Altrans Postal Solutions has decades of experience in direct mail planning and shipping logistics, and we’re happy to help.