Once again Royal Mail chose to announce new postage rates while we were away, so by now most of the headline news is well known.
Royal Mail Press Release extract 6 September 2024
From 7 October 2024, the price of First Class stamps will increase to £1.65 and the price of Second Class stamps will remain unchanged at 85p.
Royal Mail has sought to keep price increases as low as possible in the face of declining letter volumes, inflationary pressures and the costs associated with maintaining the Universal Service.
The new price of First and Second Class stamps remain below European average prices of £1.73 for First Class and £1.33 for Second Class.
Letter volumes have fallen from 20 billion in 2004/5 to around 6.7 billion a year in 2023/4. As a result, the average household now receives just four letters per week, compared to 14 per week in 2004/5. The number of addresses Royal Mail must deliver to has risen by four million in the same period meaning the cost of each delivery continues to rise.
At the same time the opportunity has been taken to increase the basic airmail rate, which is unaffected by the above factors.
The new rate chart can be downloaded here. New prices in bold, unchanged rates in italics. The 1st class £3.50 rate now covers Large Letters over 100g to 750g.
|
|
1st |
2nd |
||
|
Letter |
1.65 |
1.35 |
0.85 |
0.85 |
|
Large Letter – 100g |
2.60 |
2.10 |
1.55 |
1.55 |
|
- 250g |
3.50 |
2.90 |
2.10 |
2.10 |
|
- 500g |
3.50 |
3.50 |
2.50 |
2.50 |
|
- 750g |
3.50 |
3.50 |
2.70 |
2.70 |
|
Small Parcel 2kg |
4.79 |
4.59 |
3.75 |
3.69 |
|
Medium Parcel 2kg |
6.99 |
6.69 |
6.15 |
5.89 |
|
- 10kg |
8.69 |
8.39 |
7.65 |
7.39 |
|
- 20kg |
13.19 |
12.49 |
11.55 |
10.99 |
Special Delivery rates are also increased. The 100g rate rises by 40p from £7.95 to £8.35, the 500g rate by 40p to £9.35.
UK Tracked rates see minor increases. The basic 1st class Large Letter rate is raised by 10p to £3.60, the Small Parcel rate by 20p to £4.99. The 2nd class rates by 10p to £2.80, the Small Parcel by 6p to £3.95.
UK Signed rates rise broadly in line with the basic letter rates.
International rates. The basic letter rates are increased, but not the Large Letter and Parcel rates. The airmail rate is increased from £2.50 to £2.80, and the surface rate from £2.20 to £2.60. Premium services - International Tracked, Signed, and Tracked & Signed all see changes.
Unlike last April, when the new airmail stamp was issued after the rate increased, the new £2.80 stamp will be issued on 1 October. However, there may be problems obtaining it in Post Offices until the day of the increase (7 October).
Royal Mail's advice to dealers was "The new £2.80 rate will be live and available in Post Offices from Monday 7th October, the date that the new Tariff comes into force", so read what you will into that.
UPDATE: I confirmed in Dereham Crown Office this morning that the £2.80 was available to sell; the Horizon system has that and the presentation pack already available.
As usual the 39 x 30 mm self-adhesive stamps are printed by Cartor Security Printers in sheets of 25, and a presentation pack has been produced.
 |
| £2.80 slate-blue King Charles III definitive stamp issued for airmail letters and cards worldwide 1 October 2024 |
UPDATE: An interesting point has been raised in the Comments, that the new 1st class rate is higher than the 2nd class Large Letter rate of £1.55 as this is unchanged. This means that a 1st class commemorative or current definitive can be used to send a Large Letter (up to 100g) at 2nd class.
I feel for Royal Mail and understand that their address base has expanded whilst people aren't using letters as much. You wonder how many people will be put off further by this second price hike to First Class this year. What concerns me is the International rate rise - £2.80 compares unfavourably with many of the places I have visited in the past year for sending postcards, for example. Would anyone in Royal Mail consider a reduced rate for international postcards - say £2 or £2.10? (It would give them a chance to have a further stamp denomination in stamp sets rather than pretending that stamps are used as make-up values too). Thoughts?
ReplyDeleteI've asked this elsewhere but haven't gotten any answers...
ReplyDeleteWe are now in the unusual situation where price-wise, 1st class letter > 2nd class large letter.
Previously I could send a 100g 2nd class large letter for £1.55 by using a 1st class stamp + 20p.
Does this mean, come 7th Oct, if I put a basic £1.65 1st class stamp on my large letter that it will be delivered without surcharge within 2-3 days? I am worried that it will look like I am trying to send it 1st class, but I should pay for a 1st class large letter stamp.
That's a very interesting question.
DeleteYes, I suppose if you put a 1st class stamp (that probably cost very much less than it does now!) it would cover the cost of a 2nd class Large at £1.55.
Well worth an experiment I think!
Similarly you could use 2 x 1st (£3.30) for 2nd Large signed for (£3.25). That would be even more interesting having to be presented at the PO counter.
I mentioned this at the Crown Post Office this morning and they confirmed hat yes, a 1st class stamp could pay the rate for a Large Letter going 2nd class. Whether Royal Mail Revenue Protection had to think twice about it was another matter!
DeleteRevenue Protection should treat all unpaid and underpaid mail as Second Class. But Revenue Protection make mistakes.
DeleteCorrect me if I'm wrong, but does this make (if it hasn't already) British airmail prices the most expensive in the world?
ReplyDeleteNo, not by a long way if you take the weight into account.
DeleteFor example a letter from Canada weighing 50-100g costs C$6.88 (£3.82) although a 20g letter is only £1.62. In Eire a 100g packet costs €4 or £3.33.
Most countries' minimum rates are cheaper but given that it costs much the same to handle (in the sending country) a postcard/20g letter as it does a 100g letter those rates are arificially low with lighter items being subsidised by heavier.
Whether this balances out and encourages more people to send cards and simple letters is another matter.
Interesting, thanks! I'm curious to see if there's already existing data on the last point (especially in other countries if they ever drop the minimum prices).
DeleteRM's increasing prices seems to only contribute to the death spiral in volumes, though granted that it's multifaceted.
If letter volumes have fallen by ⅔, shouldn't letters be arriving more quickly instead of more slowly?
ReplyDeleteI suspect you know the answer to this if you have been following discussions between Post Office management and the parliamentary committee. Whatever the management say, posties on the ground know that they have to prioritise the tracked packets at the risk of delaying basic letter post.
DeleteIs it time for Royal Mail to have a serious think about whether it’s worthwhile maintaining first and second class mail?
ReplyDeleteI might be getting old but I remember when Royal Mail still issued stamps to cover the small difference in the rates. Now it hardly seems worthwhile posting anything by first class.
If we are honest RM don't do themselves any favours having NVI stamps. If I ran the business I would scrap them.
ReplyDeleteThey made sense when postal rates increased by a few pence each year, but now when the rise is in the double digits the case for having them is less obvious. I suppose as people are sending less mail, people might buy a booklet and then want to use them over the next year or two, so there's the convenience factor.
DeleteI still feel Royal Mail would be better off scrapping the two tiers - perhaps issue a single domestic rate stamp, say for £1. Make the rate equivalent to the 2nd class rate in terms of service. For the following year after introducing this single domestic rate, all 2nd class stamps get treated as domestic rate stamps, and 1st class stamps are given priority. Then after that initial year, if people want 1st class service they pay for it - perhaps with an additional priority label. This gives people a year to use up their 1st class stamps. Given Royal Mail did the swap out they have a rough estimate of how many 1st class stamps are out there (I know this is only QEII and KCIII definitives, but how many 1st class commemoratives do people keep?).
There'll be some people who will complain but honestly the average person isn't going to worry.
Agree with Chris on the single rate. I suspect that almost anything which needs to be there next working day is sent electronically or SD. Maybe some people use first class on a birthday/anniversary card to try and get it to arrive on the significant date but that's not so reliable any more so you might as well plan a few days ahead and use 2nd. Same for last minute Christmas cards.
DeleteIf you combine a single £1 inland rate with a £2 international postcard rate as se3simon suggests above then 3 of each or 4+2 makes a usable set of values for a Presentation Pack.
There has been a ruling in place for a long time now that if an envelope carries multiple stamps it should be treated as first class. So just put enough stamps on to satisfy the second class rate and get 1st class service. A lot of my outgoing mail gets there next day this way.
DeleteMike, I'd be interested in knowing more about this 'ruling'. By whom, and when? It seems highly unlikely that a letter with 5 x 1p definitives, or even 5 x 7p commemoratives, on would be delivered without surcharge but it is feasible that a letter with multiple commemoratives totalling 85p could work.
DeleteI suspect it is a continuation of the story started when phosphor bands were introduced. Only the 2nd class stamp had a single band so the story was that any combination of 2-band stamps would be delivered 1st class. That was wrong as well.
While not strictly related I know that when I’ve visited the UK and have sent packages back to Australia those which had stamps applied to them but only paid the surface rate were always sent via airmail, while if they had a label indicating surface mail it always went via surface mail.
DeleteI need my thinking cap / calculator to work out various permutations of 2nd or 1st to international economy. I knew penpalling would be a long term hobby, so some of my 1st class stamps I still have available for postage, were purchased at a reasonable rate.
ReplyDeleteI sent out some postcards internationally for World Postcard Day, and oh boy, there's not a lot of room on a postcard for multiple stamps... At least that was also before the postage rate rise, and could get away with 1st + 2nd for economy.
I have been sending more mail out via international economy. One penpal in the US said my letter to him took 9 days. He also said that another penpal's letter (this time with airmail postage) took 11 days!
Why are the stamps so big? Do the commemorative stamps really need to be a couple of inches across? A penpal in Canada uses the teeny weeny definitive scenic stamps - even smaller than a non-datamatrixed Machin.
The Canada "From Far and Wide"? They are identical to the old Machin's ... and Canadian definitives going back at least 50 years; at least the gummed ones are. Perhaps the large white framing makes them look smaller?
ReplyDeleteI had not realised why Canadian stamps are too small to appreciate the pictures. It may be because it has been an available standard size for the British empire: but then Swedish & Danish stamps are a similar size, so there may be some technical reason.
Delete