Royal Mail Prices for 2013

morezone

I've just had a look at the April 2013 price list and I can't believe how expensive things are going to get.

International remains similar for the most part. Small packets under 750g or so are actually cheaper than before.

It is the inland mail which is going to be the killer. Large Letters are unchanged but packets are now class as "small" and "medium". Anything over 8cm thick is now a medium parcel and will cost around £2.50 more than a "small packet" to post. Not only that, there is now just a 1kg and a 2kg band. There are no other bands below 2kg like before.

This is going to cause headaches all around. If you want to post a set, you now have to try and get it into a box less than 8cm thick or pay an extortionate amount in postage. It means that custom boxes is the way forward. As long as the box costs less than £2, you will save money.

The weight banding means that any "medium parcel" weighing over 1kg is going to cost more than if it were to be sent by courier.

Compensation for inland items sent without a signed service will be dropping from £46 to £20. Signed-for will increase to £50 from £46.

indigobox

Good old Royal Mail increasing the prices again.
It may work out cheaper depending on what you are sending to use parcel2go.com

maniac

Don't get me started. Absolutely disgusted at it.

2nd Class Signed Parcel costs £3.15 atm and they are increasing it to £3.70 (and that's for a parcel less than 8cm depth)?!? Oh and if you go over that, £6.30 please.

The increase was bad enough last time but this is an absolute joke. Royal Mail capitalizing on eBay sellers obviously.

Legoboy

Royal Mail wouldn't exist now if it wasn't for Ebay. To capitalize on it now does seem unjust.

Paperballpark

To play devil's advocate... Looking at it the other way around, surely a lot of Ebay sellers wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Royal Mail...?

Not saying I condone it, but they have an almost captive market there. What would you do in their position?

*sits back and waits now he's thrown the cat amongst the pigeons*

morezone

Royal Mail have a monopoly on small items so there are few alternatives. It will mainly affect small businesses as the big boys will have contracts with huge savings, such that any increase will be marginal to them.

I used to sell gaming accessories up until very recently. When Royal Mail introduced PIP it made it difficult as the Chinese sellers could send small items weighing maybe 250g or less to the UK for the same as a UK to UK delivery. Factor in the lack of VAT and also not having to import the item to the UK before distribution made is almost impossible to be competitive.

A 1kg medium parcel will become £5.20 which will mean Chinese sellers can send anything upto 600g to the UK just as cheap as a UK to UK delivery.

Any business selling relatively cheap and bulky (over 8cm thick) items who are currently fending off Chinese competition are going to be crippled by these new prices.

CCC

I can fully understand the increase in costs for parcels. The way they are delivered seems so inefficient. In y area, they are delivered first thing, normally between 7.30am-8.30am by van. I don't know if this is to try to deliver them when people are in, so that a redelivery is not necessary. I don't know how many parcels our postwoman drops off in a typical run, but normally I see her drop off one per morning in our cul-de-sac (~20 houses). Each one takes 3-4 minutes to park, get out the van, knock, wait for an answer, hand over, get next parcel ready, check next address to deliver to, then drive there, etc.

Parcels cannot go with normal mail (too bulky and sometimes heavy for a postie on a bike), so they have to be dealt with separately. The delivery of parcels for companies or ebayers or those who want to order online should not be subsidized by the rest of the population. Costs have to be in proportion to what it costs to deliver them.

How will it affect bricksetters? I don't think there will be a need for custom boxes, as there will be a new market for people to make small parcel boxes that are just the right maximum size. 8cm is not too bad for most lego parts. It might mean removing bags if you are trading a set if it happens to be a thick box, but again hopefully not that big a deal. For larger boxes, services like collectplus are more cost effective anyway, so no change there.

If we as a population want more items to be bought online and thus delivered, someone has to pay for that. Costs have to be paid by the person wanting the service. I understand that Chinese sellers can undercut as their postage costs are low. That will have to be looked at by RM or other couriers that deliver the items - so that the amount they are paid for delivering foreign mail is similar to that they get for domestic.

Personally, I wouldn't mind a parcels service where the item is not delivered to a home, but delivered to a local PO for collection - if it was cheaper than direct to home delivery. Collectplus can do it, I don't see why RM cannot

Si_UKNZ

I thought collectplus had an upper size limit of something like 60cm. Definitely collectplus for smaller psrcels in future.

AvengerDr

They are also decreasing the compensation amount from £46 to £20 for parcels. I assume the same applies to large letters but it is not so clear.

monkeyhanger

^ It was a con that they didn't up the compensation when they upped the first class postage stamp costs to 60p last time. Compensation has historically been 100 x the cost of a first class stamp until it was frozen at £46.

I can send a canny sized parcel across the UK via courier for £4.80 (and they will collect it from you!), yet for convenience it cost me £6.50 yesterday to post a warranty return failed hard drive by RM first class. The package was 28cm x 18cm x 16cm and weighed 1.4Kg.

RM are digging themselves a grave if the couriers like DHL and Hermes don't correspondingly increase their prices (and you shop around using "parcelmonkey" or similar). The number of letters being sent to my house is dwindling. Most of my post is junk mail - all my bills and bank stuff is now done online.

jockosjungle

The post office is convenient, but the more they hike prices the more inclined people will be to shop around. It'll hurt them as there will be less inclination to sell low value items

MinifigsMe

Shocking increases for international postage too! £4.50 for a small package! I can't find any guidelines on what's a letter and what's a package for international. Since we're mostly sending UK as large letters, I wonder if we can send international as letters. anyone have experience of this?

Matthew

^ this might be of use

TheCableGuy

^ This will only be of use for the next month or so as RM from the 2nd of April will only consider a letter to be anything less than 5mm thick, making all the rest packets....

It's all part of the fun and games of Royal Mail's new terms and conditions.

MinifigsMe

I looked at the new prices and couldn't see a mention of what's a letter for international purposes, though it's clear for the UK....#hopeful

AvengerDr

^ the post office in town for the above situation charges me a the small packet rate. The post office near my work place, with whose staff I've become acquainted (I have a BL shop) charges me at the letter rate for small orders below 100g to Europe.

Needless to say I've stopped going to the one in town :)

alexwil

International letters can be up to 5mm thick, anything over that became a packet/parcel - took me ages to find it on the royal mail website! It is on there somewhere - can't remember where though!!

MinifigsMe

AvengerDr said:

^ the post office in town for the above situation charges me a the small packet rate. The post office near my work place, with whose staff I've become acquainted (I have a BL shop) charges me at the letter rate for small orders below 100g to Europe.

Needless to say I've stopped going to the one in town :)

yes! I've had the same experience! We send all ours as packages at the mo, as our international customers pay that rate, but would have to have to whack up the charges for them :(

andhe

Can anyone recommend an alternative? I'm looking at collectplus and myhermes, but slightly put off by the yodel connection.

Anyone had a positive experience with either?

AvengerDr

I always use Collect+ for parcels between 1-4kg (that fall within their size limits). It's the cheapest option. Never had any problems.

I've also used MyHermes a couple of times (through Parcel2Go)... It was okay, only once they missed their collection. I usually leave parcels with the receptionist here in our building and I guess they came after 17.

paul_merton

If you go home before they try and collect, do you lose your money?

AvengerDr

In my case I had to speak with one of those "live chat" systems and I asked them to come in office hours. They came the day after, but I am not sure if there is a maximum "number of attempts" before they give up an quit.

monkey_roo

Just had my first run in with the new prices. I was shipping two items that as near as weighed the same but because one was fractionally larger (4 DVDs v's 6 DVD's) the price jumped by £2 and because of that the sale fell through. Other forums are hitting the same problem, low cost items that have a little size to them are almost costing more to post than they are worth so people just aren't going to go for it. I wonder if people will just give up shipping the smaller package low value items? Oh well that's life.

jasonord69a

I use myHermes through parcel2go.com. Never had any problems yet. As long as items are packed well they arrive safely.
Cheaper than collect+ for less than 1kg and no size restriction that affect Lego boxes. £3.30 up to 1kg then £4.79 up to 2kg. If you add insurance it goes up a bit (especially when you start going over the £50 mark).

AvengerDr

^^ the size limits have stayed the same (thickness of 25mm). If you ship a lot of items, it may be worthwhile to get a replica of the RM size guide. I had one laser cutted :D

greekmick

I just shipped a Han Solo poly to USA and it cost £3.50. Weight was next to nothing and was in a small padded envelope. Was told anything other than paper is classed as small package.