Franking machines versus PIP - what costs are involved?

Franking Supplies

Franking Ink

We tried a franking machine and found there were costs that we hadn't accounted for.  There is the rental of the franking machine and franking ink that is required for a start.  The franking ink can be quite costly, especially if you are using genuine manufacturers ink such as Pitney Bowes or Neopost.

Postage Mistakes

We then had the issue of the odd mistake with the cost of the postage, which is either difficult to get refunded or impossible, so in the cases that we had, we just ignored them and put it down to a beginners error.

Franking Labels

Then there are franking labels for the bulky items that will not go through the franking machine, these are generally sold in boxes of 1000.

All in all there are quite a few expenses that you may realise are required until you start using one.

PIP Requirements

Envelopes

You can have your envelopes printed with your licence number and assuming you use the same sizes all the time, this can be quite cost effective.  This is more the case if you send a lot of mail out.

Labels

If you use lots of different sizes of envelopes and packages as we do, then labels are the answer. The labels used for PIP are 24 per per sheet and can be just standard address labels on A4 sheets, similar to Avery address labels.

Toner or Ink

There is a cost to printing labels, ie the toner cartridges or inks required to print, however, with a mono laser printer this is quite minimal.  A good quality desktop laser printer can produce a sheet of 24 labels for less than 2p.