Royal Mail racks up prices

[Phil Hocking]

Watch out those of you who send plants to each other. I have just posted a very small and featherweight box and the kind gentleman in the Post Office informed me that it would previously have gone for 32p, but now it is ?1, a 300% increase. That is because it was too thick to go through the slot, although the other dimensions were far smaller than the average letter.

Phil in Somerset, UK

[iann]

Next time send it in a really really big box. As long as it weighs less than 100g (4oz), it will still cost the same but it will be much harder for them to transport

[Phil_SK]

The issue here is the mechanisation of postal sorting, as I understand it. Most letters don't see human hands between Postie 1 emptying the pillar box and Postie 2 checking they're in the right order to deliver. Even the addresses are read automatically unless the handwriting is bad, in which case a photograph of the envelope is relayed to a data entry centre where the address is typed in.
The cost in the UK of letters is very cheap compared to other EU countries although subsidies probably partly account for this.
I'm guessing (someone maybe can correct me) but presumably the post office has come up with a way of automatically sorting large letters (I know the normal machines can't cope with thicker letters), speeding things up and lowering the cost.
The old pricing, based exclusively on weight, harks back to the days when every item was sorted by hand and lugging sacks of parcels was the thing you payed for.
With tiny seedling-sized plants it might be significantly cheaper if you can squeeze them into a DVD case, meaning your parcel will be treated as a letter.

[Bill]

As usual guess who has something to do with this

"The European Directive requires that the prices of universal services 'be geared' to costs. Although there is some discretion in this area, it seems clear the UK universal service prices will over time need to become most cost-reflective than they are now"

Yep the good old EU, however it is universaly acepted by consumer groups etc that the Royal Mail won't be making more money overall out of these changes.

[Phil_SK]

I'm not sure what the problem is with this - surely prices should reflect costs. The alternative might be a flat rate for everything, change 80p or so for all items from postcards to ... when I'm not sure what the biggest item you can post is, but you get the idea.

[Vic]

You know what's caused this - Ebay - the Royal Mail are cashing in on it big style!!

[Bill]

"The alternative might be a flat rate for everything, change 80p or so for all items from postcards to ... when I'm not sure what the biggest item you can post is, but you get the idea.""

Under this new regulation that's exactly what they can't do, they are not allow to say subsidise (sp?) the cost of large parcels with the income from smaller stuff etc. The Royal Mail does not get goverment subsidies as such, it has recently had a ?900 million goverment loan at commercial rates and permission to draw on ?850 million of Royal Mail's government- controlled reserves.

"You know what's caused this - Ebay - the Royal Mail are cashing in on it big style!!"

Oooh that's cynical Vic, I actualy have inside knowledge about this, as a friend of mine who is staying in one of our cottages at moment works in the department that set this up and it is only a combination of what Phil said about machinery ect and the new EU rule that has brought this about. It does expect to improve it's profit margins but not it's revenue.

[Tom J]

Dear,

From a continental point of view, I don't see the big issue.
I know a 300% increase seems a lot, but in fact is nothing in absolute values.

I checked quickly the official belgian rates for sending a parcel within Belgium.
Every package up to 2 kg costs 3.7 euro.
However, and this is really fun, if you want to send the same package to the UK, it costs 26 euro, and this is for all packages up to 5 kg!
Anyone interested in a parcel of 100 g containing one single headed conophytum?
By the way, you're on top of that obliged to buy their standard size boxes, of course with an additional cost.
Now, the funny thing is that they also mention that if it is "sufficiently light and small", no criteria mentioned of course, they might consider it as a letter instead of a box. So you're basically dependent of the goodwill of the postoffice to pay 26 or only 4.9 euro...

Tom Jacobs

[David_K]

I can't see why everyone is complaining. You can now send up to 100g as a standard letter instead of 60g for the same price as before. The price up to 100g for lighter 'large letters' has also come down. I have just posted out 7 CDs resulting from the convention and instead of 49p each previously these have cost 44p each. The changes higher up the sacle are also good as I estimated when these were first proposed by Royal mail that the Society could save up to ?1000 a year on its post bill for Journals and Bradleyas.

David Kirkbright
Society Treasurer
(Not normally a fan of Royal Mail)

[Bill]

Exactly David, winners and losers, for a change a big business that's not actually trying to screw the customer. Glad to see the Society is a winner.