What is a dynamic scale or “weigh on the way”?
Years ago the USPS introduced Shape Based Pricing. Prior to that your postage rates were determined by weight. Now you need to know the weight, size, and thickness of a mail piece before you meter it. If you are simply mailing #10 envelopes with one or two inserts, then you can safely assume that the letter weighs less than 1 oz., and you can set your meter to .51 and run them. But what if you have mixed mail? If you have 9 x 12 envelopes, postcards, 6 x9’s, #10 envelopes and they all have different amounts of inserts? You have options. You can weigh each piece and run them one at time. You can weigh each piece and place them in the appropriate pile and then run each pile with the correct postage. Or you may own a postage machine with a dynamic scale and just set each piece on the feeder and let it go. The dynamic scale will weigh the piece and determine the height and thickness of each piece. It will slow the machine down a little but if your volumes are high enough then it should be well worth it.
