Sneakily unannounced, you’ll only notice when you go to send a parcel, the Royal Mail Parcel Collect charge has been re-introduced and it’ll now cost you 30p per item to have it picked up from your door.
It’s not all bad news, previously you’d have had to pay 60p (previously 72p) for a collection for most parcels before a promotion was launched which ran until the end of the year in 2022. Royal Mail simply never ended the Parcel Collect promo.
You’ve probably got people like me to blame for abusing the system. Whenever I’ve sold anything on eBay I’ve not bothered to print the label – just taken the tracking number and popped it into send.royalmail.com and had a free collection with my Postie providing the label. Even if I had a second class letter to send I was still getting a free collection and free label!
Offering Parcel Collect for free was always a massive loss for Royal Mail, even at 60p, those in the industry I spoke to couldn’t work out how they were making the numbers add up. Certainly for me, the cost of a sheet of A4 and a smidge of printer toner didn’t cost much, but the fuel to start the car and drive a couple of miles for the round trip to a Parcel Post box certainly cost more than the 60p charge. Makes 30p look like a bargain, although I might start taking a little more exercise and walk to a regular Pillar Box on the couple of times a year I have a letter to send.
The one thing that’s really a bit shoddy, is Royal Mail made no announcement of this charge, simply amending it from ‘Free’ to ‘Just 30p or less’ at the point of purchase.
After a promotional period, we’re now reintroducing a 30p charge to our Parcel Collect service. Parcel Collect makes it easy to send and return items straight from your doorstep.
Customers also have thousands of free options with our expanding network of lockers, parcel shops and the option to send small packages via our 115,000 postboxes – giving them more choice than ever.
– Royal Mail
