Save money on sending post

londonchap · 23 July 2008 at 10:12AM

I've searched the forum and the main site and this doesn't seem to have been mentioned so far so here goes...

I run a small business and regularly send out letters and invoices to customers. Always looking at ways to trim my overheads, I came across a service called Viapost (www.viapost.com), which lets me send a first class piece of post for the price of second class stamp.

I sent 3 pieces of test mail last Thursday and they all arrived yesterday, which is certainly as good as sending Royal Mail end-to-end.

From a cost-saving perspective, you save on having to buy envelopes, paper, stamps and ink, and also save on the electricity you would use to print the letter and time walking to the post box/post office. :T :T :T

I really can't see any downside to this - it's also environmentally very friendly. Would be interested to see what other MSE's make of this.

Regards,

Londonchap

Trow · 23 July 2008 at 10:19AM

That looks really interesting - thanks for the tip!

Penelope_Penguin · 23 July 2008 at 10:28AM

Hi there :beer: As this isn't Old Style I'll move it to the Small Biz Board, where it'll get more response

Pennywise · 25 July 2008 at 3:48PM

For the benefit of other readers, I've just done a trial using viapost and the results are disappointing to say the least.

I sent a letter to myself via viapost and posted two others from the post box on our road, one first class, and one second class. Both the post box letters arrived the following day, but three days later and the viapost letter still hasn't arrived.

I won't be using them unless they improve their service.

londonchap · 25 July 2008 at 4:22PM

That's interesting - my test obviously went a bit better than yours!

Having looked at their web site again, it seems like they are very new to the market and I haven't seen much press coverage. Perhaps they are doing some kind of soft launch? Will send some more tests in a few months time to see what the delivery time is then.

All the best,

Londonchap

ViaPost · 19 November 2008 at 2:09PM

Hi there,

Full disclosure: I am a shareholder and Chief Operating Officer at ViaPost

I've just come across these posts, sorry not to have jumped in sooner. Back in July, our service was *very* shaky, so pleased to hear that at least londonchap's test worked. Pennywise: I hope your test letter did arrive eventually?

The service has improved considerably since then: the print driver is more robust and letters arrive a little quicker (still 3 days, though, we will get that down a lot as volumes grow)

Do please give it another try, we'd love to hear any more feedback that you have. My email address is bruce <at> viapost dot com.

Bruce Greig

PS I hope it is OK to put the link to our site in this post, I know the guidelines say not to post links for personal gain, but rather felt that people might not really know what I was talking about if I didn't include a link. Happy to have it removed if it goes against this board's conventions.

Official MoneySavingExpert.com Note: Viapost has permission to help answer questions about its service but this does not mean MSE endorses its products or services.

Savvy_Sue · 20 November 2008 at 7:49PM

bruce, you really need to email [Removed by Forum Team] and ask for permission to post on behalf of your company, which is sometimes allowed in these circumstances. Send them the link to this post so they can see the kind of thing you are saying ...

ViaPost · 20 November 2008 at 8:46PM

Savvy_Sue - thanks, I have done that, await their response.

Bruce

silkcutblue · 29 December 2008 at 8:59PM

Okay, well, this is something that interests me so hopefully this isn't a one sided convo and we can hear back from Viapost

*Sits and waits patiently*

mrcrazy04 · 30 December 2008 at 2:07PM

I sent a test letter through viapost and it arrived a little crumpled, however I'm not sure if this was Royal Mail or viapost.
I think I'll trial using viapost in production to send items to some of the clients I have a good relationship with, and also to send to staff.
I typically end up leaving something on the printer for a few days, as I end up running out of stamps or have no reason to go to the post office or nearest post box other than these one or two letters - so viapost would be an improvement on the typical posting times!
I have to say I've found their printing quality to be very good, and the tech support is also good with the issues I've had (printing from PDFs generated by a web system I use)

ukbill69 · 31 December 2008 at 9:56PM

A good way to save money is sending PDF invoices by email to your customers and say this is the only way you send now as you are saving the planet. You save co2 by not sending by royal mail. One is the co2 from the post men from the post box to sorting office, next its the big hub lorries, then another van to take to the customer.

Save money on sending post

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