If you can prepare your mail so that our machines can read it and we can sort it automatically, we can offer substantial savings: 12% on the cost of your mailings with Cleanmail^® and 15% with Cleanmail^® Plus.

To use Cleanmail®, you must include address details in a particular format. You have two options:

Either

• You print the address using Royal Mail approved OCR fonts

Or

• You print a barcode yourself. The barcode contains a postcode and delivery point, enabling Royal Mail machines to sort mail to the last stage for delivery.

We’ll give you A4 trays and wheeled containers for you to sort and separate items. We’ll collect the containers and completed posting cheques, then use the posting cheque information to calculate the net Cleanmail® cost to you.

You should apply machine-readable barcodes (CBCs) with the address or use a recommended OCR readable font to write the address. The letters are presented for collection in Royal Mail supplied equipment and containers. The mailing should gain a successful read-rate from our sorting equipment of 90% for Cleanmail® and 95% for Cleanmail® Plus. A Quality Assurance Process also needs to be passed.

You’ll need 90% address accuracy to access Cleanmail® and 95% to access the greater discounts offered by Cleanmail® Plus. In order to help you achieve this, Royal Mail offers Clear Prospects®, which will help you to clean your data and find new customers.

Other software packages are available from alternative suppliers.

We’ll give you all the help and support you need to make the most of Cleanmail® and Cleanmail® Plus. This includes a list of suppliers who can provide accredited address software, as well as technical information to help you prepare your mail. We’ll also provide equipment such as trays, bags and labels totally free of charge.

A posting must consist of at least 500 letters per mailing, per stream (Optical Character Recognition – OCR / Customer Bar Code – CBC) and per class (First / Second)

There is no limit to the number of letters that can be sent.