Why is postal automation so important?
Offering rates that are commiserate with the amount of work that the postal authority has to put in to the process. Letters are the most efficient and when automated, more can be processed in the same amount of time by fewer people. Under the rates based on weight, certain types of mail, including disc mail, received the same rate based upon weight, not size or processing efficiency. The majority of discs mailed, could not be processed through the letter automation system, therefore creating a larger overhead to mail those pieces at the same cost as a letter. In the US the result was the 2007 Rate Case which evened the playing field. Mail pieces that required less handling and increased efficiency, costs less to post thus reducing the perceived or actual subsidization that occurs under a weight based system.
