How Mail Commingling Works — and Why It Saves You Money

If you've ever gotten a quote from Mail Movers and seen the word "commingle" on it, you might have wondered what it means. Commingling is one of the most powerful tools in the presort world — and it's the reason small and mid-size mailers can access the same deep postage discounts that large national mailers get. Here's how it works.

The Basic Idea

USPS postage rates are tiered: the more work you do for USPS (sorting your mail closer to its final destination), the lower your rate. The deepest discounts go to mail that's sorted to the carrier route level — meaning USPS just has to put it on the truck, not sort it at all.

The problem: to qualify for carrier-route sort discounts, you need a minimum of 10 pieces going to the same carrier route. Most small mailers can't hit that threshold on their own. A business mailing 500 letters per month might have only 1–2 pieces going to most carrier routes.

Commingling solves this by combining mail from multiple mailers. Mail Movers takes your 500 letters and mixes them with letters from dozens of other customers. Suddenly, instead of 1–2 pieces per carrier route, we have 20–30 — enough to qualify for carrier-route sort discounts on a much larger percentage of your mail.

The Discount Stack

USPS postage discounts are additive. A commingled mailing can qualify for:

Presort discount — for sorting to 5-digit ZIP or 3-digit ZIP level
Automation discount — for using a Full-Service Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMb)
Carrier route discount — for sorting to the carrier route level (the deepest discount)
Destination entry discount — for delivering the mail to a USPS facility closer to its final destination (SCF or DDU entry)

The combination of these discounts — available through commingling but not achievable by a single small mailer — is why Mail Movers customers consistently pay significantly less than retail postage rates.

Who Benefits Most from Commingling?

Commingling delivers the most value for:

Small and mid-size mailers — businesses mailing 200–10,000 pieces per month who can't hit volume thresholds on their own
Businesses with geographically dispersed lists — if your list covers a wide area, commingling helps reach carrier-route thresholds on more routes
Daily or weekly mailers — banks, medical offices, utilities, and municipalities with ongoing statement and invoice mail benefit from daily pickup and commingle programs
Nonprofits — commingling works with Nonprofit Marketing Mail rates, stacking the nonprofit discount on top of automation and carrier-route discounts

How Mail Movers' Commingle Program Works

Our commingle program runs daily. Here's the process:

Pickup or drop-off — we pick up your mail at your location (Wicomico County MD, Worcester County MD, and Sussex County DE) or you drop it at our Salisbury facility
CASS certification and IMb barcoding — every address is standardized and every piece gets a Full-Service IMb
Commingling — your mail is merged with other customers' mail and sorted to the finest available level
eDoc submission — we submit all required electronic documentation to USPS
USPS entry — mail is entered at the appropriate facility (local post office, SCF, or DDU) for maximum destination-entry discounts

Your mail goes out the same day it's picked up or dropped off.

Is Commingling Right for My Business?

If you're mailing more than 200 pieces per month and currently paying retail or basic presort rates, commingling almost certainly makes sense. Mail Movers offers a free savings analysis — we'll look at your current volume, format, and postage costs and show you exactly what you'd save.

Learn more about our presort & commingle services → or call 410-749-1885.