Royal Mail price changes for 2011 are here.
Royal Mail have announced that from April 2010, the price of a first class stamp will increase to 41p (up 5.1%). Second class will increase to 32p. For businesses sending meter and account mail, prices remain the same at 36p and 25p respectively.
The news for those sending out goods through the post is worse. Large letter prices will increase between 5p and 10p depending on weight: new prices start at 66p for up to 100g (up 8.2%). Packets will start at £1.39 for up to 100g, an increase of 11p (up 8.6%)
Recorded (signed for) will go down a penny from 75p to 74p.
Postcomm, the postal service regulator, has previously said that Royal Mail needed the increases to compensate for falls in the numbers of letters sent: this despite the fact that Royal Mail had an operating profit of £184m for the six months to September. The changes have hit larger items disproportionately hard; any regular seller who is still paying the normal over-the-counter price for their RM postage should now be looking at one of the bulk discounted services offered to small and medium sized businesses.
The full tariff can be found in Royal Mail’s pdf.
20 Responses