You will have read in the press that Royal Mail will be changing some of it’s pricing. For stamps, first class will increase 1p to 64p second class stamp will rise by the same amount to 55p. All these changes come into force on 29th March 2016.
But if you delve a little deeper there’s some specific detail of more interest. At-a-glance:
– Buying Royal Mail services will often be cheaper online than at a Post Office counter
– No change of price of Royal Mail domestic parcels up to 2kg if purchased online.
– Medium parcels above 2kg prices have been frozen
– All consumer Parcelforce Worldwide prices, domestic and international, will remain unchanged.
The dedicated page on Royal Mail’s website is here.
The Royal Mail price guide is here for postage bought online..
If you want the tariff for buying your postage over the counter in a Post Office, that can be found here.
Partly the encouragement in price to shop online reflects Royal Mail’s drive toward 2d tracking. It’s included as standard when using Royal Mail Click & Drop, Royal Mail Online Postage, and partner services (eBay OLP, Amazon and Paypal). Royal Mail aims to barcode all parcels going through its network in due course.
The price to send a Royal Mail parcel, up to 2kg, using a Post Office branch will increase by 5p per item for 1st Class & 2nd Class Small Parcels, 1st Class Medium Parcels, and by 6p for 2nd Class Medium Parcels. For Medium Parcels above 2kgs the over the counter price has also been frozen meaning there will be no difference between online and
International despatches are also impacted. For International Standard Parcels up to 1kg, online prices will increase by 5p as over the counter prices will increase by 10p. Above 1kg, online prices will be cut by up to 6p, with over the counter prices reduced by up to 1p.
For International Signed and International Tracked & Signed Parcels, online prices will be cut on all weights, by up to 60p. Post Office prices will be maintained up to 1kg and cut above 1kg, by up to 55p.
12 Responses
Why can’t Royal Mail and tamebay not just tell the truth and just say **PRICE RISES**, since that is what a lot of it is
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A 1p increase on LL x 250g is OK…
It is good to see RM playing Hermes at it’s own game.
Hermes dropped their prices for 0-2kg packets and RM followed last year.
Hermes knowing that they can up or down their prices at anytime, whereas RM publish for a year caught RM off guard when they then upped the 1-2kg price and restricting the old price back to 0-1kg, making RM 1-2kg cheaper than Hermes, and assumably running at a loss on the 1-2kg packet delivery.
But they have retained the pricing for 0-2kg for 2016, so good on them…..
Anyone found the contract prices for RM business customers?
We are still waiting to know to what extent the new 2d barcodes can be used as ‘tracking’ information. Does anybody know if Royal Mail has announced anything in relation to this?
I am hoping that it will work in a similar way to when an Amazon courier delivers a small item through the letterbox. You don’t actually make a signature, but the courier scans the 2d barcode and you receive and email informing you that the package has been put through the letterbox. Surely this Royal Mail 2d barcode could operate in a similar way? It still won’t be the undeniable proof of a signed for delivery, but for low value small to medium items it is certainly something that can reduce the amount of INR claims.
We have integrated the 2d barcode into our shipping since January and it is early days yet but already we seem to getting fewer INR claims and fewer late deliveries. So if the ‘tracking’ information works and can be integrated into our eBay and Amazon deliveries the time spent integrating it into our systems could be worthwhile yet.