Postage Changes

[Leon]

In April, Royal Mail announced changes to their Small Packet and Parcel rates, which can be found here: http://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/SchemesConsultation_%20Parcels_Compensation_2.pdf

Basically, they have reduced the number of price bands for some packages, and they have also implemented a Medium Packet category for anything over 80mm.  As a result of this, we have also had to change some of the minimum postage charges on our packages.



These changes have been made on the Pendraken website and and Minibits will be following on shortly:

UK - £2.00 minimum
Europe - £3.50 minimum
RoW - £4.00 minimum

And also on the Pendraken site only, the postal rate for Europe (Zone 1) up to 15% of the order value.

[Nosher]

Hopefully some of this price hike will see Royal Mail invest in staff and for once we might start to receive our mail before 3pm...

although I seriously doubt it

[sebigboss79]

Did they not just recently increase prices? If so, why is the CEO or whatever he is called in Royal Mail not being tarred and feathered for incompetence?

[Albie Bach]

Did they not just recently increase prices? If so, why is the CEO or whatever he is called in Royal Mail not being tarred and feathered for incompetence?

She actually

[Leon]

They put them up last April, but I can't remember any other than that?   

[gangleader147]

It seems to be that companies are not happy making money in this current financial climate but instead want to bleed more from people - is that a lack of sense.  Utility providers love it because you need fuels, water and electricity etc.

We had a shopping area that decided that although times were hard to increase rent by 20-30% on the shop units as a result he has a few empty shops.

Common sense, please come back.

[Hertsblue]

Yes, half our local high streets seem to be charity shops. Where's the economic sense in that? 

[Leon]

The worst change for a lot of people will be the new 'Medium Parcel' category.  Basically any package over 8cm in height, regardless of weight, will now be a minimum of £4.80 to send (1st class).  I can imagine this causing a lot of problems for some companies, especially those with ready-boxed products, and also eBay sellers.  Hopefully this won't hit us much, as most of our orders go out in Jiffy bags.

EDIT: Checking through the exceptions page, it looks like a 16x16x16cm square box can still go as a 'Small Parcel'.

The main package category we use is the 'Small Parcel' which is going up to £2.65 for anything up to 1kg in weight.  With the cost of the Jiffy included, I doubt we'll be able to maintain the £1 minimum postage level, as we'll be losing too much on every order.

Outside the UK, the minimum for European parcels is going from £2.50 up to £2.76 now, but that is only for packages under 100g!  Anything over that weight will move into the higher price categories.

Rest of the World, the minimums are now £3.20 for just 100g, going up to £12.05 for 1kg packages.


Remember, all of the prices above are the Royal Mail prices, for information purposes really.



NOTE: These are the prices on our franking machine, so don't be surprised when you get to the Post Office and it's even higher!

[Leon]

Just to let everyone know, the new postage rates have now taken effect, so the new minimums on postage are now:

UK - £2.00 minimum
Europe - £3.50 minimum
RoW - £4.00 minimum

The European rate is still at 10% for now, but that will be increasing to 15% shortly.