UK Postage - Price Changes :(

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Chinners

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http://www.royalmail.com/prices-2013

It appears small parcels are going up 40p for second class, from £2.20 to £2.60. This may be of use for people who are selling items here for a minimal price. I've attached a couple of PDFs which may be relevant to those in the UK.

The RM site seems to be very slow, so I'll summarise here:

Royal Mail Signed For™ Letters and Large Letters prices
Royal Mail Signed For™ 1st Class Letters (up to 100g) will be £1.70
Royal Mail Signed For™ 1st Class Large Letters (up to 100g) will be £2.00
Royal Mail Signed For™ 2nd Class Letters (up to 100g) will be £1.60
Royal Mail Signed For™ 2nd Class Large Letters (up to 100g) will be £1.79

We are introducing two new parcel formats which replace current packets and parcels – Small Parcels and Medium Parcels. Find out more about our parcels changes.

1st Class and 2nd Class parcel prices

1st Class Small Parcels prices start from £3.00
2nd Class Small Parcels prices start from £2.60
1st Class Medium Parcels prices start from £5.65
2nd Class Medium Parcels prices start from £5.20
Royal Mail Signed For™ parcel prices

1st Class Small Parcels prices start from £4.10
2nd Class Small Parcels prices start form £3.70
1st Class Medium Parcels prices start from £6.75
2nd Class Medium Parcels prices start from £6.30


I've not put this here for a "lets all bash the R.M." It's just for info. :)
 

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fitzsteve said:
Thanks for the info :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

I saw your first, unedited post :whistle:

Reading further, they have introduced "small" parcel and a "medium" parcel. It's going to cause a few problems for us, especially with the "exceptions" part.

Small Parcel
Length - 45cm
Width - 35cm
Depth - 8cm
Weight - 2kg

The following items are also priced as Small Parcels:
1. Parcels that measure up to and including:
Length: 16cm and Width: 16cm and Depth: 16cm
2. Roll or cylinder shaped parcels that measure up to and including:
Length: 45cm and Diameter: 8cm
Roll or cylinder shaped parcels larger than these sizes can be posted as Medium Parcels up to and including
90cm in length and up to and including 104cm (length plus twice the diameter)



Medium Parcel
Length - 61cm
Width - 46cm
Depth - 46cm
Weight - 20kg
 
OOOOoooo Medium Parcels upto 20KG

thats great - about time RoyalMail!!!
 
Zetr0 said:
OOOOoooo Medium Parcels upto 20KG

thats great - about time RoyalMail!!!
Click to expand...

Cost is a little prohibative imho.

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Ahhhh ParcelFarce..... sorry I thought RoyalMail had put another class up (medium class) and priced it more inline with courier services.... clearly I was mistaken

Fail Royal Mail..... Fail!!!!
 
For the best prices posting parcels I follow this set of rules:

UK up to 1kg Royal Mail (first/second class)
UK 1kg+ (up to 5kg) (low value) Collect+ (via parcel2go.com)
UK medium value over 5kg (Citylink/TNT via Parcel2go)

(For high value items ParcelMonkey have much cheaper insurance options)

US/Canada/up to 1kg Royal Mail Airsure/Airmail (You can send up to 2kg with Airmail but normally FedEx is a similar price @1.5kg and much faster & fully tracked)
US/Canada over 1kg - FedEx via Parcel2go
EU up to 1kg Royal Mail Airsure/Airmail (You can send up to 2kg with Airmail but normally FexEx/UPS is a similar price @1.5kg and much faster & fully tracked)
EU over 1kg (FedEx or UPS via Parcel2go)
(Some countries are cheaper with Parcelforce Via Parcel Monkey, also high value items might work out cheaper via Parcel Monkey due to lower insurance costs.)

Other countries, best to try all sites to find the best deals :)

It's defiantly worth shopping around, I really isn't cost effective to send larger parcels with Royal Mail.
 
The United States Postal Service recently had some big price hikes, especially as they pertain to International packages. Unfortunately, the Internet has stolen so much of the postal system's bread and butter (First Class Mail and Junk Mail) that they need to charge higher prices.

One good thing about the price hikes is that there's a smaller difference in cost between the postal service and other large carriers, like UPS and FedEx. I'll be checking into costs there the next time I need to post Internationally.

Heather
 
Royal Mail increase their prices every year.

However last year was the first year they were allowed to set their own prices, rather than being restricted by a regulator, and the larger price increases finally reflect the real costs of their services.

As usual though, royal mails own employees haven't actually been informed about the new prices yet or about the new parcel sizes, which are going to be a real headache for those checking prices for surcharges (me included).

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
 
Am I doing this right? I kind of hope I'm not.

I want to know the cost to post a joystick in the UK

In a box 16cmx16cm base, height of 22cm.

Weight 310g

So it doesn't count as a small package?

£6.85 to post a joystick. That can't be right can it?
 
clueless said:
Am I doing this right? I kind of hope I'm not.

I want to know the cost to post a joystick in the UK

In a box 16cmx16cm base, height of 22cm.

Weight 310g

So it doesn't count as a small package?

£6.85 to post a joystick. That can't be right can it?
Click to expand...

No, its a medium parcel :(

Using the royal mail's site, it'd be £5.20 for Second Class. :(

It may be worth looking at a service such as MyHermes, with their Parcelshop system - it'd be £2.50+vat.
 
Yet a parcel of 45x35x8cm that weighs 2kg costs the same as my 300g little parcel :nuts:
 
I have personally been stung by Royal Mails new prices recently, wonderful :blink: :lol:
 
Something interesting for you all. Until June RM are "letting people off" if they get parcel sizes wrong. At least, this applies to business mail such as Meter... not sure about stamped mail. As long as the customer has attempted to pay one of the new parcel prices they are letting the parcels go through the system, even if they are surcharges.

This means that even if a parcel should be say £13.45, but the customer has only paid £2.25, because they have attempted to use the new prices it will be let go. Could save a lot of people a lot of money. ;)
 
Hmm. Here's an odd one.

I have a parcel to send uk-> uk

Its under 2kg, but slightly too large for a "small parcel", so it has to go large. I would also like a signature as proof of delivery.

Checked with the RM website:
1st Recorded (Proof of Delivery only, max £44 compensation) = £6.75
2nd Recorded (Proof of Delivery Only, max £44 compensation) = £6.30
Special Delivery (Fully Tracked, max £500 compensation) = £6.22

It is now cheaper to send a parcel "Fully tracked" than any other proof of delivery method. :blink:

Surely this isn't right!
 
I think it's due to new parcel sizes not applicable with special delivery.

If it's low value send with Collect+ (if you have a shop near by) it'll be £4 otherwise use Special Delivery :)
 
i normally use 1st class recorded or special delivery.

i dont know how they work out there prices sometimes though.
 
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