SYSTEM FOR RELIEVING OVERBURDENED POSTAL SORTING EQUIPMENT

A solution is provided to the technical problem of postal sorting equipment overburdened by medium-sized batches of unsorted mail. The solution identifies and diverts such batches for processing at a separate facility before the batch is tendered to the postal service. The batches may be placed in containers that are pooled together with others for pre-sorting. The invention further provides a method and system for collecting relatively small batches of mail that, alone would not qualify for mailing at a pre-sorted postage rate and pooling them together with others for pre-sorting into a qualified batch of pre-sorted mail. The mail may be metered at a reduced program rate. The system creates a cooperative of participating mail senders working together to earn a lower effective postage rate.