New Royal Mail Fines for retailers from 2nd January 2020

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There will be new Royal Mail Fines introduced from the 2nd of January 2020. These Royal Mail fines, called ‘rework fees’ by the company, will imposed when you present your mail incorrectly.

If parcels handed to Royal Mail differ from what is stated on the Sales Order, they will correct the Sales Order to reflect what was given and impose Royal Mail Fines for any adjustments.

If Royal Mail find errors in the way parcels have been presented this will also attract Royal Mail Fines.

You will want to make sure that you stock up on bags, ties, labels, yorks, trays etc before you shut down for the Christmas Break. As the new Royal Mail fines kick in from the first working day back in the New Year, directly after the busiest trading period, it’s perhaps the time of year you’re most likely to run short on mailing stock and be forced to use the wrong colour bag or be missing a label.

Royal Mail Fines from 2nd January 2020

Adjustment Charge

Fee

Charging basis

Flat Fee per incorrect Sales Order and or Manifest £27.95 If items differ from what is stated on the Sales Order Royal Mail will apply an admin fee per Sales Order for any adjustments they’ve made.
Sales Order Under Declared £1.30 If more items are handed over than declared on the Sales Order Royal Mail will charge you a flat fee per item.
Barcode cannot be read or missing 20p If Royal Mail can’t read and/ or scan the barcode printed on your items or it’s missing, they will charge a fee per item.
Incorrect labels and or bag ties 20p If incorrect bag labels or bag ties have been used, Royal Mail will charge you a fee for each incorrect label or tie.
Incorrect cage cards 25p If an incorrect cage card has been used a fee for each incorrect cage card will be applied.
Customer collects York and or bag from Royal Mail £3 If mail needs to be collected due to presentation issues, Royal Mail will charge a fee for every York and, or bag collected.
Storage costs for Royal Mail to retain Yorks awaiting collection £5.00 If items need collecting due to incorrect presentation, Royal Mail will charge a fee per York and cage for each day they store the items.
Overweight bags or trays 65p If overweight bags or trays are given to Royal Mail, they will charge you a fee per bag or tray.
Overweight Cages and or Yorks 65p If overweight cages or Yorks, are presented to Royal Mail, they will charge you a fee per cage and York.
Return York or Bag to customer by Royal Mail £25 If Royal Mail need to return your items due to incorrect presentation, they will charge a fee per York that they return.

60 Responses

  1. if Royal Mail start messing us about with surcharges then we will move to another carrier, I think they should be very careful about upsetting customers when they are performing so inefficiently

  2. Another customer threatening to move? What a surprise! Performing so inefficiently? Have you not seen there half year profits sure they won’t worry about the pittance you give them, just make sure you do your job properly and you will have no charge simple really

  3. Can’t disagree with the underdeclaring part, as they need to protect themselves from future Babzmedias, but as for the rest…

    I’ve had conflicting info whenever I’ve asked how they want the mail sorting. I’ve been told RM24 and 48 large letters can go together in the same bag (like you might see at the post office), but parcels have to be split into separate bags. I’ve also been told bags can have large letters and parcels mixed in together, as long as they’re sorted by RM24 or 48. And finally…I’ve also been told bags should only contain the same things.

    I just go for the last one to be safe. No idea if it’s right or not. If they want to bring in fines for this and that, better make sure they explain properly in non-jargon terms, so people know what they’re doing.

    Also, the overweight bags thing makes me laugh. The click and drop manifest doesn’t add the weights up for you, just an average (thanks for that!) half the crappy mailing bags they send me are irregular sizes, full of holes and need stitching back together with cable ties before they can be used. The posties will moan if they think any one of the bags is around the max weight…but then they’ll cart them off to the back of the van 4 at a time! If they can’t safely pick up 1x 11kg sack, how can they pick up 4 no problems?

  4. How much is the fine for putting the value as $1 gift on all your 1000s of parcels shipping into the UK and undeclaring for customs.

    I bet its Zero….

    Nice one Royal Mail !

  5. That’s the final nail in the coffin for me. Firstly it’s the threat of strikes and now fines. Royal Mail makes plenty of mistakes. We had two go missing last week with no compensation and now they want to fine us for the slightest misdemeanor. If we are allowed to fine back for late collection drivers, bags that don’t hold mail because of all the holes, missing packets, late deliveries, non final scan on delivery and the list goes on. Anybody get the feeling that it’s all one way traffic.
    I will be ringing Amazon logistics tomorrow to get the ball rolling to move over come New Year. There’s only one direction Royal Mail is going, so last one turn the light out.

  6. Royal mail are seriously need get their own house in order with bullying and harassment which is rife in the work place, also overloaded yorks,trays,bags over the desired weight, damaged and faulty working practices,Van’s ready for the scrap heap,smoking in vans, the list is endless,

  7. lots of bullying, overload some staff with work and others stand there like madame tussuads for 3 hours doing nothing, they deny verbal abuse, let relatives throw in parcels anyway, but if temp will oversupervise you and moody lot,prefer foreigners asians, east europeans who say things like ‘ your white im black’ relatives lie for each other, people been there years being bullied out, temp workers may only get 1 shift a week or every few weeks, cancelled 14 of my shifts and expect you to work like a slave when they change your shift within a hour from 7 hours to 4 and if temp no 5 or 6 days full time day or night x mas work from sept, its almost dec and barely get any so useless, hate temp workers, receptionists females and males never speak and scruffy loose time sheets, disrespect parcels, have noses in air a lot of them, many cliques, cover ups, let relatives be lazy some workers just stand their, bitter staff with scarves on head, nothing in common, they cannot mix with english, treat temps like shit especially in daventry with their games, small area, not much work around, poor standards now, use to be nice, they sulk if you complain and take revenge normally send you home earlier as an excuse, some horrible indians there, no social skills, bores, found wet and damaged parcels told to carry on, no form completed as fault, big problem with indian, asian staff wanting it all for themselves, well have it, massive decline in work

  8. It’s time customer stopped cheating RM out of the correct payments for postage. And follow the correct procedures to sending the items. As for strike actions the truth is would you stand up against an employer who bullied harassed and breached your working terms conditions. RM is a fantastic service. I’m very proud of RM.

  9. The ‘suits’ always come up with a stupid idea , I advise everybody to find another carrier there are plenty out there. Incompetence rules at Royal Mail.

  10. I’m sure Rico would love to show you how its done?, but it’s a quite a commute from Switzerland and his hourly rate might be a bit steep. Mind you he would be over the moon with the abuse of casual labour, that is how he likes to run a business, hence the strike action. Completely agree with the comments regarding proposed fines. It is like the outrageous surcharge they place on domestic customers to receive cards etc that have been under payed by pence. As a company they little or no interest in customer service or workers terms and conditions, unfortunately is all about the pursuit of maximum profit.

  11. Steve you sound like a casual who loves to moan about everything in your life. Get a life you retard and try finding a real job you clown but you probably cant because of your stinking attitude pathetic excuse of a human

  12. Imagine how much plastic waste is created by the thousands of tie wraps on Royal Mail Sacks every day??

    That’s what needs fining.

  13. Excellent idea as it may stop unscrupulous merchants from sending overweight and oversized items with the wrong postage paid.
    As for the rest, whenever I have to get mail bags from the Depot their offices are roasting hot and the doors wide open. This could be a Union demand?

  14. Wish i could start applying fines for all the times that items aren’t left with customers but no cards left either… In the last 10 days i have had 6… 5 of which have turned up at the depot when the customer has gone there to ask.. no cards left. This has been getting worse and worse. We get grief from customers claiming we should check… but the sorting officers wont tell us as it is not addressed to us! Then we have some sorting offices refusing to check without a card… claiming there is no way to, yet others do it no problem.
    What about late items? The amount of itesm turning up after 4,5, 6 days or more is increasing steadily… and we all know what happens if a parcel doesn’t turn up when ebay says it should!
    To sum up…. if i started fining RM for when the mess up, i would be quids in! Sadly it only works one way… RM provide crappy service. Put Prices up. Put fines up. Tell us to ‘put up with it’!

  15. Currently taking Parcel Force to task for non delivery of customers parcel. It was signed for by the driver in the recipients name and claimed to be delivered. Customer was at work and could not possibly have signed for it. Parcel was left outside the property and subsequently stollen!

  16. Hi Royal Mail staff,

    Are you going to bother to spend the time checking everything if there is no insentive and your bosses arent bothered about you?

  17. How about a charge for royal mail for delivering to the worng address eveing know the adress label is clear wirting and is correct and royal mail dont know the diffence between a flat and a bungalow which is not even in the some road royal mail need to get there act togerther befor pointing the finger at other people and befor charging them for mistakes

  18. It is another nail in coffin of UK business because China does the same products as me but they can send anything from China for 99p posted regardless of what it is. All subsidised by the Chinese gov.

  19. I love the blanket statement about bullying and poor service , harassment and slave labour . So typical as a society we pick on all the bad points . Do you know all the facts , perhaps not . Perhaps look at the benefits of employees , perhaps look at the thousands of people benefitting from charitable assistance, what’s the avg pay in the sector ?
    Now when you have all the facts go for it !

  20. Losing postman pat was when the rot started to set in at royal mail…….
    Maybe Rico is jess in disguise…….

  21. Rico has no idea he was given 6million to take charge dropped share prices so he could buy them with his millions at a cheap rate he’s not bothered about the major share holders, wonder if they know this, postmen and women do a great job in all weather’s to get your items to you, no complaints by customers who get their mail incorrectly addressed and still get it delivered to them, get items redelivered at no extra cost if they aren’t in. Rico also wants to change parcel deliveries which means no going down to local delivery offices to collect them, but go miles out your way to collect at new depots

  22. Omg royal mail deliver most of mail parcels in UK about time they started properly monitoring the post as company’s are getting away with printing small parcel labels and sticking it on 70 I ch tvs for postmen who walk 10 plus miles a day with this stuff on their back

  23. I advise every company I deal with NOT to use RM & to avoid Parcelfarce Worldwide. Overseas businesses soon get the message to use alternative carriers after lost, mislaid, stolen, damaged parcels are reported to them.

  24. Royal mail does mess about alot especially bulk post in every post few of them missing and when u claim then u wont get anything our mail system is crap the sign for service should be cheap so every one can use that and always do safe business this is the new way to scrap small business

  25. Been reading through these comments and I must say that running royal mail down for a charge that is not over the top is silly .
    What about other firms that are about for you to change to . well have you thought about what happens in there working depots, what about complaints they receive from there customers , don’t run royal mail down its been about for over 503 years .

  26. Think most customers need go think what they write as most people put badly labelled addresses on their mail also most are never in and the poor postmen and women have to try and sort out the problem. Have some time to think that they are carrying heavy weight in all weathers doing 7or more hours starting work before most people are out of bed and working late and getting no thanks for it. So yes go to another company but tbey will leave your parcel outside in all weathers dont leave a card and when you try to change your delivery time gou have hassle

  27. 500 year old British institution something to be proud off, until the Tories sold it off for next to nothing shameful.

    The company has failed terribly under privatisation the workload has doubled for most of your local posties yet they receive no extra help.

    But Rico got 6m.. the game ain’t straight.

  28. Royal Mail never seem mind extra items on the sale order to what is collected.

    It would be nice to see a more streamlined service rather than all the products they offer that is simple and everyone cane use. Then they wouldn’t need to worry about fines.

  29. Maybe the should. Start imposing fines
    For free to account despatch and mailing products being sold and misused
    RM polymailers Labels, Cable ties ,sold on ebay etc
    Plus much more misuse

  30. I’ve used Royal Mail (among others) as a courier for our business for many years and they’ve been the most reliable in my experience. Play by the (fair) rules, be responsible for your own labels and packaging and there’s no problem.

  31. I think Royal Mail do a great service, always have done! Well done to all the “foot soldier” posties out there… (I only use domestic parcels / large letters).

    Before printing labels I make sure all addresses are correct and properly formatted, this is an annoying waste of time, but that is not RM’s fault, that blame lies with eBay & Amazon.

    That does not mean that I do not get frustrated by some things RM do.

    I don’t like the idea of fines, who does? I see it as a way RM bosses can increase revenue. But if they do bring it in then it will be easy to get round, just comply with what they want, but tell us the rules. And it would help iof C&D worked a bit better.

    Currently I put mixed mail in the same bags, although most items are RM48 parcels. Large letters occasionally get their own bag, as do 1st class when we have enough, or on a Monday.

    The big problem with RM is their lack of adequate technology to stop the people that cheat the system. That is what they need to work on.

  32. title of the article is a bit misleading, the fines are not new they have been in place for over 3 years they are just being increased.

    If you are declaring your items correctly (not sending Parcels as Large Letters or miss-declaring weights) then you wont have an issue.

    If you do get an issue Royal Mail will email you from Revenue Protection and offer you options on what you can do with the mail.

    It’s not just going to appear on your invoice that you have miss-filed every day for the month so here’s 30x £27.95 charges on top of your bill.

    I’m also surprised by how many people saying bulk mail going missing – In the last year, I’ve had 2 items in the UK go missing and my gut feeling there is that they have been delivered and the postie has forgotten to scan.
    – Are you taping over labels? Sellotape affects the thermal print and will turn it white and unreadable.
    – Are you using tracked services? (not signed for just CRL with proof of delivery scan)

  33. This is RM’s way of getting the £50 million fine back they were charged a few weeks back. How else do you think Rico Back is going to pay it off?
    Yes bullying is rife, overtime not being paid, agreements not being adhered to.
    Posties being sacked for the slightest misdemeanor, how do I know? , my hubby was sacked after working for them for 33 years. But thanks to the CWU they got his job back.
    Relations are not good enough for him, with management in his work place trying their best to get rid of him in anyway they can.
    Rico Back needs stopping and so do the bullying management.

  34. We use Royal mail because well, everyone else struggles matching their price especially for untracked 2nd class large letter- however some of the other customer comments on here strike a cord. We find mail nearly every single day in the mail sacks- (which we just leave in there so they get delivered correctly), we have issues sending post to the US- over 30 parcels gone missing.

    Different Royal Mail staff give difference advice. Even on basic stuff like if it’s okay to average weigh the recorded with the none recorded.
    Royal Mail accounts are a mess and all over the place too.

    I think Royal Mail need to take a step back, totally simplify the services / range of tariffs and get back to basics. They also need to fix their online services.

    Otherwise the Postal & Depot staff are great, including our revenue protection officer on the odd occasion he has had to contact us ( he will make sure a large letter is definitely a large letter before declaring it a packet)!

    We sent out about 10000 parcels/ large letters a week, we did use citipost about 6 years ago who were great initially before they slipped up.

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