Royal Mail Account Holders – Watch Out!

On the 1st of September 2007 Royal Mail will be introducing surcharges for their Epro and “Posting Cheque/Docket Business Account services. Our current understanding (after talking to the Business Unit) is that if you use the paper based system (posting cheque/docket); you will be held to a minimum of £20.00 on an order. If you use Epro you will be held to a minimum of £5.00 on an order.

But wait a minute, you say, I send £50 a day in total with Royal Mail, so I will be alright, right?

Wrong.

If you only send one item First Class Recorded you will be charged the surcharge. This is because it is on its own docket, so you will be charged the minimum order.

For Example:

If I send £45 of postage in one day through Special Delivery, and £2.30 on First Class Recorded, the First Class Recorded will be rounded up to £5.00 in charges on Epro and £20.00 in charges on a Posting Cheque/Docket. It’s the service that gets rounded up, not the day’s postal costs.

So it does not matter your total for the day, it is done by docket. Though the docket to you and me is a line on a piece of paper, to Royal Mail it is an individual service. We learned all this by speaking to the Business Unit at Royal Mail.

Now there is a solution thankfully-

If you migrate across to the new Online Business Account, you can register for a new service which has no dockets and is fully online. Your current postage rates will be the same as before, so it is just a change in system for you. This service will not be subject to minimum orders as the rationale is that you do all the administration according to the Business Unit. You do have to register though.

So our advice is get yourself registered and save yourself a little money!