Deutsche Post

The mail division of Deutsche Post ships 72 million letters per day. The main growth in this volume comes from Direct Marketing services: since the postman goes from door to door anyway, he is the ideal low cost solution for delivery of direct mail, unadressed mail shots, advertising flyers and catalogues. As the client pays for the actual number of flyers and catalogues delivered to the target group, incoming shipments need to be weighed and counted when they arrive at the DP sorting centres. For this purpose, Deutsche Post has been buying Bruss hand pallet truck scales for the last ten years. Over 200 of these scales are now in use at 80 separate locations throughout Germany.

Location: 80 sorting centres throughout Germany
Application: checking and counting incoming direct mail materials
Mobile scales: 200 Bruss HGW-I hand pallet truck scales

Deutsche Post-World Net is the name under which the former German Post operates today. The name reflects the ambition to provide worldwide services in mail, express and logistics. Companies such as DHL, Danzas, Van Gend & Loos, SITS, Narrondo Desarollo, Securicor and Servisco were acquired by Deutsche Post for their know-how and market share in these fields.

All shipments of direct marketing materials arrive at the sorting centres in plastic crates that are stacked onto wheeled containers. Upon arrival the shipments are weighed and the letters or catalogues counted. The resulting data is checked against the shipping documents and printed out on a ticket.

The HGW-I indicator is equipped with an internal memory for storing client names, product types and tare weights. When an operator lifts a container, the indicator first asks him to enter the type of container and the type and number of plastic crates in the container. From these data the scale computes the total tare weight of the shipment. Then the indicator prompts the operator to enter the type of mail. From its memory the indicator activates the piece weight attached to this type and calculates the number of envelopes or catalogues in the shipment. If the shipment is divided over several containers, the scale adds up the results into totals. Finally a ticket is printed that shows date and time, the client’s name, the weight of the mailing shipment, number and type of envelopes in the mailing, and the destination of the shipment within Deutsche Post.

When a shipment consists of catalogues stacked directly onto a single container, the software programme can be bypassed and the weight of the shipment is simply checked against the weight declared on the shipping documents and printed out when necessary.

apart from the logistic advantages of being able to weigh direct mail shipments when and where they are received, this mobile scale also carries the advantage that it is completely adapted to DP’s procedures and is flexible in its use. Via parameter settings it can be configured for either simple check weighing and printing of total weights, used at so called “freight centres”, where catalogues and packages are sorted, or for sophisticated counting procedures, used at “letter centres”, where letters and direct mail are sorted. The more complicated the weighing procedures, the more the operator is guided through the process via step-by-step prompts on the display of the indicator. This prevents errors and makes the scale extremely user-friendly.

We can memorise the weight of the different crates, as well as data about client names and sorting centre. The memorised crate weights make the actual weighing process much easier, as there is no complicated calculations to be done in case of a mix of different crates. That makes for less errors.

M. LudwigSb Entgeltsicherung/Annahme - Deutsche Post

Case study Deutsche Post

Improve your warehouse efficiency with Bruss mobile scales