Royal Mail to raise stamp prices by record 5p Actress Lacey Turner promotes the Royal

[4me2]

Royal Mail to raise stamp prices by record 5p


Royal Mail said it needed to make more money to fund its £2bn modernisation programme


Royal Mail is to raise the cost of a first-class stamp by a record 5p to 46p in April, the company has confirmed.
It will be the largest increase since first-class postage began in 1968. A second-class stamp will rise by 4p, taking it to 36p.
Regulator Postcomm gave permission for the price rises last month.
Royal Mail currently loses 6.4p for each stamped letter it delivers. The price rises should provide it with £380m in additional annual revenues.
There have been larger percentage increases, notably in the high-inflation 1970s, but a 5p rise on a standard first-class stamp would be unprecedented in cash terms.


Higher charges

"No-one likes to pay more and we regret having had to take these tough decisions on pricing," said Royal Mail chief executive Moya Greene as the company unveiled the price rises.
"After these increases, we will continue providing value for money, as our prices will still be among the lowest in Europe.

The price rises, which will take effect from 4 April next year, were part of series of proposals outlined by Postcomm.
Postcomm said the changes would help Royal Mail to fund its modernisation programme and help safeguard the one-price-goes-anywhere universal service in the UK.
Earlier this month, Royal Mail said its half-year profits had fallen by more than two-thirds and its core letters delivery business had returned to making a loss.
"With the sharp declines in mail volume, our revenues are falling," said Ms Greene.
"That means if we don't generate more income, we will simply not be able to keep funding our six-days-a-week collection, sorting, transport and delivery operation to the UK's 28 million homes and businesses."


Competition

The mail operator also wants to charge competitors up to 15% more, and said that Postcomm had told it that it was "minded to" accept the price increase.
Rivals such as UK Mail collect and sort letters themselves, but have to pay Royal Mail to deliver over what is known as "the final mile" - up to people's letterboxes.
Royal Mail says current rules have meant it loses 2.5p on each item delivered in this way.
More than 45% of all letters delivered by Royal Mail are now handled by a rival under access arrangements, the company claimed.
Philip Cullum, of watchdog Consumer Focus, said: "Consumers will be extremely disappointed by the latest inflation-busting increase given that stamp prices having gone up at double the rate of inflation over the last five years.
"Royal Mail needs to modernise but customers are being asked to pick up the tab. In return, they will expect to see a far more efficient, effective and competitive service. Consumers cannot be expected to continually bail out an inefficient Royal Mail."



Price increases in full

• Standard letters: 1st-class up 5p to 46p; 2nd-class up 4p to 36p
• Large letters: 1st-class up 9p to 75p, 2nd-class up 7p to 58p
• Franked mail: 1st-class up 3p to 39p, 2nd-class up 3p to 28p
• Parcels: below 2kg unchanged, above 2kg up 8%
• Special deliveries minimum up 40p to £5.45
• New £210 annual charge for company mail collections after 0830

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12019636

[Thrush]

Royal mail is still better than hong kong post.

I live a few hours away by plane and it still took them 4 weeks to send me two items.

[TwoPlAnKs]

This will totally ruin my life.

How the fuck will I send messages to people when my phone has run out of battery and the landline has been cut by severe weather and my computer has broken down and my fax machine has run out of ink and the message I am sending is so unimportant that it can wait until the following day now?

I can count the number of letters I've actually wanted or needed in my life on one hand - they should just stop it and switch solely to parcels. Online everything FTW

[Mule]

I can count the number of letters I've actually wanted or needed in my life on one hand - they should just stop it and switch solely to parcels. Online everything FTW

Large letters are parcels pretty much, I very much doubt many people write letters so big that they need to be sent by large letter.

They need to price parcels more competitively. They charge considerably more than many courier companies and don't even collect.

[the.insane]

This will totally ruin my life.

How the fuck will I send messages to people when my phone has run out of battery and the landline has been cut by severe weather and my computer has broken down and my fax machine has run out of ink and the message I am sending is so unimportant that it can wait until the following day now?

Do what i usually do and send smoke signals, wont cost you a penny and you will be contributiing to global warming, so thumbs up all round.

[TwoPlAnKs]

Large letters are parcels pretty much, I very much doubt many people write letters so big that they need to be sent by large letter.

They need to price parcels more competitively. They charge considerably more than many courier companies and don't even collect.

It's difficult for them to compete when they can't refuse certain parts of the country though, most commercial couriers refuse excessively rural deliveries and other silly nonsense.

I think it was somewhere like Finland where they had the same problem and made a system for rural people - they would get reduced to weekly deliveries, but as soon as their letters arrived at the sorting office they would be opened, scanned, and emailed to the person. That's a brilliantly simple idea to avoid expensive rural delivery.

That sort of mad new idea needs to start here.

[Mule]

It's difficult for them to compete when they can't refuse certain parts of the country though, most commercial couriers refuse excessively rural deliveries and other silly nonsense.

City Link do 10kg deliveries for £7 for a next day service, collect from your door and don't refuse anywhere. A 10kg parcel with Royal Mail currently costs £12.61, isn't next day and you have to lug it to the post office.

[tronads]

Im all for the increase if it helps stop them being privatised.

[4me2]

Im all for the increase if it helps stop them being privatised.

It won't though, this all about making it more attractive for prospective buyers.

Then some of the corrupt cunts from the unions and the MP's will be taking backhanders.

[TwoPlAnKs]

City Link do 10kg deliveries for £7 for a next day service, collect from your door and don't refuse anywhere. A 10kg parcel with Royal Mail currently costs £12.61, isn't next day and you have to lug it to the post office.

City Link's Aberdeen office doesn't even open on a Saturday, although they'll still take your money if you pay for Sat delivery and then just not deliver it. My point is that Royal Mail aren't allowed to do that sort of nonsense.

Visiting somebodies rural house for £7 is not bad either, whereas Royal Mail has to do it for a (currently) 42p stamp.

[pumpman]

i have to agree this will be to make them more appealing to offload, its not so much that the company is not profitable , they have to deliver letter the last mile for the likes of tnt its the pension black hole that is the problem.
What will happen is they will be sold off privatised and the pension used as part of the funding to buyout the post office.

The network is 2nd to none so it would be appealing to one of the big parcel firms.
i tend to use city link for getting stuff from down south can get it next day , other firms use the offshore 3 day delivery malarky and I tend to use the post office for sending stuff to the islands as again next day before 12 guaranteed which makes a difference to the companies I send to and its not that expensive, certainly far far cheaper than having to go there myself.

[beansontoast]

Pump I remember when you sent me some pc bits (motherboard, cooler etc.) via royal mail & it arrived the next day. I thought at the time it was a great service, Inverness (I think) to Glasgow then by air to Wolverhampton & then on to me, all by 1st class parcel

[dainese]

My mrs bought 20 1st class stamps to send Christmas cards and nearly died of shock when she only got £1.80 change from a tenner! I'd have dumped the cards in the nearest bin! Bah humbug