Letter size to affect post cost

The cost of posting letters and parcels will depend on their size and shape as well as weight from September 2006.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4161106.stm

Although the following perplexes me:

It is expected prices on around 30% of post will be affected but overall revenue to Royal Mail will not change.

The move would allow Royal Mail "to bring its prices much more closely into line with its costs", Postcomm said.

So all of this will have no effect on the Royal Mail revenue? Then why bother?

[Damien]

Maybe by revenue they mean profit, so in other words these items of post which cost more to deliver and are going to cost more to post?

[Robster]

So...it won't make them any more money, and will probably cause quite a bit of confusion. Really seems pointless to me.

Its another example of the UK doing things in a way that doesn't make sense and is different to most other european countries.

[Graham]

Originally Posted by ScaredWebWarrior

The cost of posting letters and parcels will depend on their size and shape as well as weight from September 2006.

Great, so when I go to the Post Office I'm going to have to take a tape measure or ruler with me and hold up the rest of the queue for even longer because some of what I send is large but light and other items are compact but heavy.

What a bloody palaver

[andygrif]

Originally Posted by Robster

So...it won't make them any more money, and will probably cause quite a bit of confusion. Really seems pointless to me.

Its another example of the UK doing things in a way that doesn't make sense and is different to most other european countries.

I guess what they are doing is bringing them inline with competitors - as from next year the whole market will be opened up to alternative suppliers. So no-one will want to carry the letters we send each other - focussing mainly on business postal services instead and high-profit items such as packets, special delivery items and parcels - which is where the competition will be at its most fierce.

I guess from next year we will be having not only scales at the Post Office but also tape measures - and I thought the queue in my local one was bad enough already!!!

EDIT: Sorry Graham, I hadn't read your post when I wrote the last bit....great minds think alike eh?

[Jules]

That is going to make sending christmas cards interesting!

[Kliro]

Apparently they don't want to be left carrying round the larger, harder to sort stuff for low prices, whilst they are being undercut by competitors on the easier to sort letters.

If that makes any sense whatsoever

[Julian]

[quote=andygrif]
I guess from next year we will be having not only scales at the Post Office but also tape measures - and I thought the queue in my local one was bad enough already!!!
[quote]

We already have tape measures m8.... don't often need to use them though as the max dimensions atm are quite large.

Some of the things sold on ebay make me check sometimes though.

[Chris W]

I would imagine the sorting would be done with a letterbox (or similar).

If an item fits in a regular sized slot it would be regular price. If it doesn't, then it would have to be posted in the large slot, which would cost more....

only speculation mind, but seems the most sensible way of doing things.

[Chris T]

Originally Posted by ScaredWebWarrior

So all of this will have no effect on the Royal Mail revenue? Then why bother?

Because at the moment, the price you pay to send something bears little resemblance to the actual cost to the royal mail. It is size, more than weight, that determines the true cost of handling packages.

Flat letters zip through their sorting machines. Oddly-shaped packages - like jiffy bags with spools of film in them - do not. They take longer to process, so they cost more to deal with.

It makes sense that if the Royal Mail wants to grow its business, it has to have a pricing structure that allows them to charge the appropriate amount for each piece of that business. That way, they can invest in a particular part of their service and see an improvement in the returns relating to that part of the service.

It actually makes less sense the way it is now.

The terms of the deal with OFCOM prevent them from hiking prices at the same time, so that the only upheaval for customers is in the way charging is handled, and not in the overall price.

Originally Posted by Graham

Great, so when I go to the Post Office I'm going to have to take a tape measure or ruler with me and hold up the rest of the queue for even longer because some of what I send is large but light and other items are compact but heavy.

What a bloody palaver

Worse - there is going to be some convoluted size/weight equation that will determine the price, since it is either weight and/or size that determine the cost to Royal Mail, apparently.

BTW - the large-but-light class of parcels is in the 30% of things getting more expensive!

[Maggy J]

I thought this was old news.It was anounced about three months ago on breakfast news.

[AndrewJ]

Originally Posted by Graham

Great, so when I go to the Post Office I'm going to have to take a tape measure or ruler with me and hold up the rest of the queue for even longer because some of what I send is large but light and other items are compact but heavy.

What a bloody palaver

I believe a suitable word with a hint of irony would be.

Progress.

[SMHarman]

www.royalmail.com/pricinginproportion

I recieved the consultation letter back in April 2005.

ftp://ftp.royalmail.com/Downloads/pu.../GC28_chev.pdf

The thing that interests me most in this is that the proposal seems to show pricing stopping at 1Kg. Special delivery currently ships up to 10Kg (though is only cost effective up to 2Kg.

The size bit does not seem that complex to me. A standard letter is C5 (to take A5 papers (A4 folded in half or smaller)) A large letter C4 (to take A4 unfolded), then the packets are anything larger than A4 or thicker than 25mm.

and RM is not exactly ground breaking here.

Originally Posted by Royal Mail Press Release

Similar pricing systems combining weight and size already exist in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Australia, Canada, Japan, and the USA.
The following countries also have forms of size based pricing - Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland, Hong Kong, New Zealand, and South Africa.

[punky]

Originally Posted by Graham

Great, so when I go to the Post Office I'm going to have to take a tape measure or ruler with me and hold up the rest of the queue for even longer because some of what I send is large but light and other items are compact but heavy.

What a bloody palaver

Well said.

This is going to be a bloody nightmare. We are going to have 3 factors governing postage, size, shape and weight? You're also going to need a calculator, and some pen and paper to work out the equation probably If someone the right postage on there it would probably be a fluke. I can see a lot of confused people, and underfunded postage, which is going to cost Royal Mail a lot more in admin

Bloody muppets.