By now many of you will have seen news of Royal Mail's next price increases on stamp/Postcrossing forums or social media, but as yet there is no press release so we don't know what weasley words Royal Mail will use this time to justify some quite large rises.
Press Release added 2106 7 March:
Royal Mail carefully considers prices, balancing affordability with the increasing cost of delivering mail.
Letter volumes have fallen from 20 billion a year in 2004/5 to 6.7 billion in 2023/4, and could fall to 4
billion a year within the next four years. Over the same period, the number of addresses has risen by four million meaning the cost of each delivery continues to rise.
Nick Landon, Chief Commercial Officer at Royal Mail said: “We always consider price changes very
carefully but the cost of delivering mail continues to increase. A complex and extensive network of trucks, planes and 85,000 posties are needed to ensure we can deliver across the country for just 87p.
“Ofcom has recognised that reform is urgently needed to protect the one-price-goes-anywhere Universal
Service which requires Royal Mail to deliver letters to around 32 million UK addresses six days a week.
Reform will allow continued investment in the modernisation and transformation of the business to
provide a more financially sustainable service.”
Ends
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The new rate chart can be downloaded here. New prices in bold, unchanged rates in italics, reduced price in red. The differential between 2nd and 1st for a 100g Large Letter rises from £1.05 to £1.60 (and 12 months ago it was only 55p!).
The 2nd class rate for 100-250g is reduced to below the April 2024 rate and is now only 15p more than the April 2023 rate, presumably reflecting market forces. If it doesn't matter that 2nd class will only be delivered on alternate days this seems to be a much better option than 1st class.
|
|
1st |
2nd |
||
|
Letter |
1.70 |
1.65 |
0.87 |
0.85 |
|
Large Letter – 100g |
3.15 |
2.60 |
1.55 |
1.55 |
|
- 250g |
3.60 |
3.50 |
2.00 |
2.10 |
|
- 500g |
3.60 |
3.50 |
2.40 |
2.50 |
|
- 750g |
3.60 |
3.50 |
2.70 |
2.70 |
|
Small Parcel 2kg |
4.99 |
4.79 |
3.90 |
3.75 |
|
Medium Parcel 2kg |
7.19 |
6.99 |
6.29 |
6.15 |
|
- 10kg |
8.99 |
8.69 |
7.89 |
7.65 |
|
- 20kg |
13.69 |
13.19 |
11.89 |
11.55 |
Special Delivery rates are also increased. The 100g rate rises by 40p from £8.35 to £8.75, the 500g rate by 50p to £9.85. Increases for delivery by 9am are between 11% and 21%.
UK Tracked rates see minor increases. The basic 1st class Large Letter rate is again raised by 10p to £3.70, the Small Parcel rate by 16p to £5.15. The 2nd class rate remains at £2.80 for 750g the Small Parcel is up by 10p to £4.05.
UK Signed is up from £3.35 to £3.60 1st class and from £2.55 to £2.77 for 2nd class.
International rates. The basic letter rates are increased, but not the Large Letter and Parcel rates. The airmail rate which increased in October from £2.50 to £2.80 goes up a further 40p to £3.20, and the surface rate is up 50p to £3.10. This is bad news for Postcrossers! It will bring a new barcoded definitive of £3.20; however creating either rate from special stamp issues is going to be more difficult especially with the size of new barcoded stamps to make up any shortfall.
A quick look at Premium services - International Tracked, Signed, and Tracked & Signed see changes of up to 15% but not at all levels.
We will bring more news on the new stamp etc as details are announced.
This post is now open for comments - and corrections.
3.20£ for airmail is insane. I think I'm going to have to ask relatives abroad to buy me a stack of IRC's, where the price is still the equivalent of 2£. I do postcrossing as well as eBay and other things, so as you said it's very bad news.
ReplyDeleteThere's countries in western Europe where it's still under 2£, and third world countries where I believe it's even under 1£..
I don't believe Post Office exchanges/recognises IRCs now. I recall a discussion a few years ago but if I remember I'll ask next time I'm in the PO.
DeleteOfficially, as long as a country is a UPU member state they should be accepted. I'm sure most clerks will either be clueless or say it's not exchangeable, but with enough riding around town from one PO to the next I'm sure I'll find one. The Edinburgh City main one should be fine though, with enough explaining.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI found this in a GB Philatelic Society pubication
DeleteThe UK Post Office no longer sell International Reply Coupons (countries have to accept them, but do not have to supply them). The formal announcement came in the Royal Mail Group
Limited Overseas Letter Post Scheme (Amendment No 20) which deleted all references to the coupons, and came into operation on 2 April 2012.
The UPU has continued to issue coupons for those countries that are still prepared to sell them, with design competitions for each new four-year period. Subsequent types are listed below purely for reference – while these are of course accepted by the UK under UPU rules, the only way that they will be found with a UK postmark is if a redeemed coupon irregularly makes its way onto the market.
See https://www.gbps.org.uk/documents/Great%20Britain%20Reply%20Coupons%20-%20George%20King%20and%20Maurice%20Buxton.pdf page 20.
Umm, oh &^%$ but at least we've still got a postal service... for now. I suppose I've been quite "lucky" to have decided my hobby of sending mail since 2008 (mostly letters, and occasional postcards) is for the long term, by stocking up on stamps. I still have an ANIMAIL snake first class stamp. I still have various themes and try to use them as postage for penpals and postcrossers who'd find those themes interesting. There's worse addictions to have.
ReplyDeleteLooks like the £3.20 may win the race for the first M25L coded stamp.
ReplyDeleteLast year, a 1st class stamp increase of "only" 10p was claimed to be restrained and competitive - only for a further 30p to be slapped on the price a mere 6 months later, just in time for the Christmas post.
ReplyDeleteWith twice-yearly price increases now apparently the norm, I will be pleasantly surprised if the price is not c.£1.95 - just for show, keeping it below £2 - by year-end.
I think the October increase last year (there was also one the previous year) was partly political - "We've got to put the price up this amount to cover the costs of the Universal Service Obligation and we're restricted as to how much we can increase 2nd class by."
Delete(1) Why did RM put up 2nd Class by 2p? This is just silly. Main postage rates have been rounded to the nearest 5p for some time now. Also, if they hadn't done this you'd have been able to use two 2nd Class stamps as a 1st (and therefore, collectors could dream, a set of 8 or 10 could be all 2nd Class and thus affordable!)
ReplyDelete(2) Britain isn't the cheapest but nor is it the most expensive. Many of you will have seen the news item about the Danish P.O. ceasing to deliver letters and taking down all their post boxes. They had a letter rate of 29 kroner (about £3.35), and so far as I know, no 2nd Class equivalent, and letter use had declined by over 90%. Royal Mail should take heed of this "death spiral" of increasing rates causing a fall in use, causing a further price increase ... I think it is already happening to 1st Class which may become extinct (maybe this is RM's intention!)
(3) Another sneaky gambit from RM is changing the last collection time on most post boxes from 4-5 p.m. to 9 a.m. This effectively gives them an extra day to deliver without it showing in the statistics.
Ian, County Durham
2nd class prices are governed by the regulator. I suspect OfCom said that a 5p jump to 90p would be too much - I agree, a 6% rise WOULD be too much.
DeleteYou cite rising prices as a cause of falling usage but the situation is wider than that. There are many (mainly electronic) reasons why business letter usage and indeed personal letter usage has fallen. You can go paperless on bank statements, council tax and utility bills - all that means fewer letters. You can pay bills by app transfer, so no more sending cheques to the above. Apart from sending customer orders the only letters I have posted since Christmas are to HMRC because it takes an age-and-a-half to get through on their abysmal phone system.
Second daily deliveries were dropped in 2004. Last collection times on a large number of boxes were changed several years ago (starting around 2014). The only surprise is that it took them 10 years to realise that they could no longer collect from roadside boxes if they weren't doing a second delivery. But I agree, you can no longer respond on the day that you receive a letter, and expect that your letter will be delivered two days after the person wrote to you.
"Royal Mail should take heed of this "death spiral" of increasing rates causing a fall in use, causing a further price increase".
DeleteBut RM don't like letters, so isn't that their plan, to follow Denmark's example ?
The international Large Letter rates HAVE increased, Ian. Up to 100g Europe from £3.25 to £3.50 and World from £4.20 to £4.30. Presumably that means that the £3.25 and £4.20 Machins will be taken off sale, and possibly we may see £3.50 and £4.30 KCIII defins in their place?
ReplyDeleteThanks John; I think that error was caused by not editing properly! And I think you will be proved right in your suggestion. At least that will be three stamps in a presentation pack instead of one, even if they are rather pointless.
Delete