The old currant bun has today been the first of the mainstream press to realise Royal Mail are about to put a hidden price hike in place with the introduction of a fuel surcharge for contract customers. While they publish it as an “exclusive”, they probably don’t read Tamebay and aren’t aware that retailers are only too aware of the cost changes coming in just two weeks time.
Most of the media fell for the fantastic marketing headline from the Royal Mail, that the price of a 1st and 2nd class stamp aren’t rising in their price changes coming into place on the 2nd April. There was also very little coverage that the cost of posting a parcel will rise significantly, not only for businesses but also for consumers who are unable to access bulk discount prices only available if you post more than 1000 parcels a year.
As a side note I was in my local Post Office yesterday and, whilst they’ve “received a leaflet”, they’re as yet in the dark as to how the pricing will work, how they’ll measure the difference between a small and medium parcel, whether a 16x16x16 cm cube has to be “cube” shaped or just fit within a cube, and even exactly what the price structures will be.
The 2nd of April will be interesting to say the least, although probably interesting in the wrong way for many retailers who may be as unprepared as the Post Office currently appear to be and could have an unpleasant surprise when they find out the costs for sending their daily set of parcels.
6 Responses
another Royal Mail cock-up on the cards….watch this space!
“how they’ll measure the difference between a small and medium parcel”
My friendly post office owner was issued with a yellow tape measure by Royal Mail the week after the changes were announced. It’s going to be *chaos*.
Went into my local Post Office today (about 4 miles away). The Clerk was trying to charge as per the current prices but also work out what it would be in a couple of weeks time. He was having a great deal of “fun” trying to do the various calculations based upon the leaflet that he has been issued with.
He did not show me a yellow tape measure. But he did show me the replacement for the plastic “measuring board” that they have used for a few years. It is a 21st Century High Technology floppy cardboard measuring board. I hope that this is only a stop-gap piece of equipment because I would guess that in a busy Post Office where it is in use all of the time it will last at best a couple of weeks before it falls apart.
Stung by surcharges!
Using the packetpost (or used to be called) and not only have the prices for each band jumped about between 5% and 12%, but today we have the surcharge being added as well. The RM website states a 2.5% surcharge although my calculations are slightly different.
Anyone got any ideas on what is charged a surcharge and how much???
I was at my local post office yesterday with 2 parcels,one going to France, the other within the uk,the parcel going to France was bigger and weighed more than the uk box,but it was cheaper to send!
How can that be?
Because UK mail is priced differently according to size. International is not, at the moment. They are changing it so that anything that is over 5mm is a small packet for international. So no more sending lightweight items by cheaper letter rate internationall.