"Bulk Mail" confusion

In the last 10 years mail delivery has changed drastically. I started at Tri-Auto in 2004. At that time we were one of the very few automotive mail providers in the country using bulk mail postage. Most of the 'big guys' were still using First Class because bulk was unreliable and required maximum effort to even figure out the system. Fast forward to 2009 and my guesstimate is 90% of anyone using saturation automotive mail is mailing in this way (you can obviously also use it for non saturation mail as well). Among this camp there are two ways of getting the mail into homes. They are most commonly referred to as "SCF Delivery" and "DDU Delivery." So just what do those acronyms mean!?

• SCF - Sectional Center Facility. Mail comes in to these large postal hubs and is the dispersed to the...
• DDU - Destination Delivery Unit. ...or your local post office. Postmen and Postwomen deliver the mail from this location.

The difference in the two types of delivery is where the mail is being dropped off. Companies choose which location they "drop" the mail to for different reasons. After numerous conversations with the Post Office we've found dropping at the SCF level to be the most reliable. We were just given stats that 85-90% of DDU's now no longer have the sorting equipment necessary for our type of mail, so if the mail is delivered to them they are just sending it back to the SCF to be sorted anyway. We figure we'll cut out the middle business and just send straight to the SCF where it can be sorted and sent out correctly the first time. On the flip side, I know there are many companies who deliver to the DDU-and all of our systems are different so they may have just discovered another work around. Hopefully this helped to clear up the difference in mail delivery-it's all "bulk" in the end but the additional follow up and attention to detail is what makes all the difference on whether or not your mail is in homes on time. Check here for more info on how we attempt to control our mail AND things YOU can do to ensure your mail is delivering as reliably as possible.