The Royal Mail Peak Surcharge is effective from today the 20th of November, adding up to 10p per parcel for all retailers. It will run from today, right through Royal Mail’s busiest time of year, until the 7th of January 2024.
Royal Mail say that this is because they scale-up their network at additional cost in peak season. In previous years, Royal Mail have always swallowed these costs… after all the more parcels you send the more money they make, but from this year onwards they appear to want penalise you for being busy over the Black Friday and Christmas period!
We’re hearing that volumes in carrier networks are below previous years, and if too many retailers switch traffic away from Royal Mail due to the additional costs, it’s going to harm them even more and could back fire. They need all the traffic they can get if they’re not to report some spectacular losses in the New Year.
Royal Mail Peak Surcharge Rates
| Products | Parcel | Large Letter |
|---|---|---|
| Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed® by 9am, 1pm and end of the day Sunday | £0.10 | £0.10 |
| Royal Mail Tracked 24® and Royal Mail Tracked48® | £0.10 | £0.05 |
| Royal Mail 24® and Royal Mail 48® | £0.10 | £0.05 |
| Special Delivery Guaranteed Returns | £0.10 | £0.10 |
| Royal Mail Tracked Returns® | £0.10 | £0.10 |
The Peak surcharge is applied on the product price after any discounts or commissions or other surcharges, and before VAT. It’s yet another additional cost in addition to the 2p Green Surcharge plus an additional 8% Fuel Surcharge for every parcel you send through Royal Mail.
The only good news is that the Royal Mail Peak Surcharge will not apply to non-contract business and consumer parcel services or any items within the Universal Service Obligation.
2 Responses
Pay more for slower delivery. You can’t make this stuff up.
Silly Billy’s again. Hardly anyone is using them. Unreliable, slow, expensive, same mistakes year after year.
1 item we sent RMG today, it have been about 150 not to long ago this time of year. Absolutely everything else went Evri. Get my tracking, get my scans, and don’t have to pay a Royal Mail premium.
I actually want them to do well I have £20k tied up in loss making shares with them. They are not going to increase volume with so many alternatives available by hitting retailers in the pockets right now.