Ozark Mailing keeps up with postal technology

Company profile

by Karen E. Culp

By now, Tom Barr is accustomed to explaining his business to others.

"They'll say, 'You do what there? I didn't know there was such a thing,'" Barr said.

Ozark Mailing, now 16 years old, was Springfield's first mailing service, and the company still provides first-class-presort services and bulk-mailing services, among others, Barr said.

When Barr started the business, he had been to Springfield three times in his life. Growing up in Long Island, N.Y., Barr didn't see much of Missouri at all until his family moved to Sikeston while he was in his final two years of high school.

He then went to college in Kansas City, got a job in Jefferson City after graduation, and, at 27, headed down to Springfield to start the business. He was inspired by an article he read on a local retired postmaster who had begun his own mailing service.

"I went to talk with him and thought I would take the idea back to Kansas City, but there were already three or four presort businesses there, and I didn't think there were any in Springfield," Barr said.

He headed south and started his business with $2,700, he said. In the beginning, many of his clients were in the medical profession. Barr would call on potential clients, and he and a group of part-time staffers, most of them from the local colleges, would hand-sort the mail for the clients, he said.

"Back then, the cost of getting started was not that high," Barr said.

He started with some sorting boxes and a leased postage machine. In 1991, automation began, and he had to change his business to meet the Postal Service's long-term objective of complete automation.

Allowing Ozark Mailing to presort first-class mail is a way for Barr's customers to save money. Ozark Mailing also takes on bulk-mailing services and can do everything from producing a letter to be mass-mailed, to folding and sealing a piece for bulk mailing.

The company also has computer programs that allow it to address a customer's mail, if he or she provides the addresses on a computer disk. The address standardization service sorts and standardizes the addresses, and also adds the ZIP+4 to the address, Barr said.

The first-class-presort service can save clients up to 2 1/2 cents per piece of mail.

In terms of the equipment the business uses, the days of using mostly manpower and a few machines are gone. The company now has high-speed sorting equipment, tabbing equipment and machines that spray the name and address on a piece of mail without using a label, Barr said.

The offset printing component of the business is starting to expand; the company can not only print a letter onsite, but can fold it and mail it, using ink-jet addressing to apply the address.

Barr said he tries to keep abreast of the changes in the postal industry. He belongs to two trade organizations and often finds out about upcoming changes well in advance, he said.

"I belong to these groups so that when these changes are made, we can go in as a group and make sure the Postal Service in Washington hears our voice," Barr said.

Ozark Mailing receives rebates from the post office because it presorts and applies bar codes to the pieces it mails. That rebate allows the company to offer a discount to its clients, Barr said. Keeping the rebate means following the standards the Postal Service sets.

"If we have over a 3 percent error rate, we lose a portion of our rebate. If we have a 10 percent error rate, we lose our total rebate for that day," Barr said.

Keeping the error rate down has not been a problem for Ozark Mailing, though, which is largely because of the company's good work force, Barr said.

"There is a very good work force in Springfield. The employees are dedicated and hardworking," Barr said.

Springfield has been a good place to do business because of that available work force, and because Barr's clients are also an outstanding group, he said.

"I think our clients see a real value in our service. This is the only service I know of that saves you money, and you don't have to do anything differently except to hand over your mail a few hours earlier," Barr said.

Barr said his business will get more involved in laser printing in the future and will "look for services to add that fit into our niche." For now, he's just proud of what he's accomplished.

"It pleases me that in our 17 years of operation we've been able to grow on something that was a fairly simple process. Through our loyal clients and great employees, we've been able to think into the future and stay a step ahead," Barr said.

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