Cheaper Postage...

[gemd89]

I am sending out quite a few items per week now and want a cheaper solution than royal mail - taking them to the post office.

I am sending items out first class at the minute but ideally would like to send everything tracked.

I dont want to go down the route of printing my own stamps so i think that rules royal mail out. My average package size is 700g, but i could have something 99g or 400g. Who do you use? Are you happy with the service?

Thanks
Gemma

 

[Pocket Money Designs]

I find www.interparcel.com useful for getting good prices on the heavier items I send

 

[gemd89]

Hey, Just looked on their site - might be cheaper when you get to 4kg and upwards but it wasnt cheaper for the smaller items and it didnt say whether that was recorded/tracked

Thanks
Gemma

 

[360interactive]

The problem is with the relatively low amounts that you would be sending each week, I don't think you're going to find a cheaper option than royal mail.

 

[Raw Rob]

For parcels of that size, you're not going to get anything cheaper than Royal Mail. Do you really need your parcels to be tracked? Royal Mail do offer tracked services, but they are of course more expensive.#

If you are sending enough, you can open an account with Royal Mail, I think you need to spend over £5000 per year with them. You don't need to print "stamps", just the PPI stickers (the stylised 1 symbol that you see on a lot of business mail). I print sheets of 65 labels which makes it really easy.

Rob

 

[dynamic08]

Dont waste your time looking royal mail are you only option.

What is your idea of "quite a few" ?

 

[gemd89]

Hey Rob - Is this easy to do printing the stickers? How do you pay? And you would need to weigh them yourself aswell so you get the correct sticker? So you need cost of ink/sticker sheets/scales - is it not just cheaper to go to the post office and have them do it all?

Gemma

For parcels of that size, you're not going to get anything cheaper than Royal Mail. Do you really need your parcels to be tracked? Royal Mail do offer tracked services, but they are of course more expensive.#

If you are sending enough, you can open an account with Royal Mail, I think you need to spend over £5000 per year with them. You don't need to print "stamps", just the PPI stickers (the stylised 1 symbol that you see on a lot of business mail). I print sheets of 65 labels which makes it really easy.

Rob

 

[gemd89]

Quite a few - around 30/50 at the moment!

Gemma

 

[kulture]

The best thing to do is to contact the Royal Mail and ask for a PPI account. (they may call it a OBA account) Tell them that your posting volumes (they have a minimum of 5,000 a year) and you exceed their minimum. Tell them your anticipated annual postal spend (if you spend less than , I think, £15,000, then a charge is levied for a daily collection, about £500, if your spend exceeds that then the collection is free). You can elect not to have a daily collection but to continue taking your sealed bags to a depot or post office.

The postage is calculated by you weighing your post calculating an average weight. If fior example your average weight is between 250gm and 500gm then you pay £1.39 per parcel for 2nd class. EVEN IF SOME PARCELS ARE HEAVY. 2nd class tends to arrive almost as fast as first.

They provide free bags, free bag ties, free PPI ink stamp (so all you pay for is ink to refresh the ink pad)

 

[gemd89]

So it just goes on average not on actual parcel cost? Wouldnt that work out more expensive if you started posting alot of small orders aswell?

Gemma

 

[gemd89]

How do you know which sticker to print or are all the stickers the same? Is the money on credit and you pay at the end of the month|

Gemma

 

[estwig]

This might be of interest.

 

[gemd89]

It still all seems more hassle than just going to the post office and letting the nice lady add them all up!

Gemma

 

[SamStones]

PPI is helpful as it saves you standing in post office queues and the prices are actually a little lower than normal prices. If you are sending 2nd class the limit is 2kg as well, instead of the usual 1kg which helps if you're sending out parcels between 1-2kg.

If you're dispatching every day (mon - fri), the £500 collection fee is quite cheap really, when you consider your time and petrol etc driving to the post office - for us it was a necessity as the local postmaster got rather shirty about pre paid mail (as he wouldn't make any money from it)

It's done on 30 days credit rather than pre pay.

HTH

 

[kulture]

It saves both time and money. You have to split large letters from packets and do an average for each. Large letters tend to work out very cheap. It is always 10-15% cheaper per parcel and that is a considerable saving if you are doing 30-50 a day.

 

[gemd89]

Thanks, I have contacted royal mail and think i will sign up soon to the OBA/ Hand stamp one the guy has just sent me information for as it fits with exactly what i want.

Just need to start sending enough to spend £15,000 and get the free collection! Thats quite alot of post though isnt it?

Gemma

 

[gemd89]

Sam - Do they come everyday? What if you havent got anything one specific day? Do you notice anymore post missing through this method? What happens if you get to the end of the year and havent spent £15,000 and they have been collecting everyday from you - then do they charge the £500? Also are you tied into a contract or can you stop at any time?

Thanks
Gemma

 

[JEdge]

For smaller goods your best bet is to stick with royal mail.

~Jack

 

[kulture]

Thanks, I have contacted royal mail and think i will sign up soon to the OBA/ Hand stamp one the guy has just sent me information for as it fits with exactly what i want.

Just need to start sending enough to spend £15,000 and get the free collection! Thats quite alot of post though isnt it?

Gemma

You will be surprised how much it adds up. Especially if you start sending airmail.

 

[Jeff FV]

We have an online business account - its brilliant - but we don't have our post collected. We have a delivery office in our town (where you go to to pick up a parcel when you get a little red card to say you weren't in) and we just pop in there to drop of our bags of post - never any queues and saves us £500 a year for collection. (And they are always happy to hand over a load of new postal sacks when we need them.)

You can stop at anytime by just stopping using them.

The stickers are the same, regardless of what you are posting.

Jeff

 

[gemd89]

Jeff - You mentioned sacks - do royal mail give you those aswell or do you buy your own? Take them in, drop all parcels out of bags and then refill the next day?

Thanks - thats an idea!

Also is the year from say 2010 jan-2010 dec and so on or is it from when you open the account?

Gemma

 

[Jeff FV]

Jeff - You mentioned sacks - do royal mail give you those aswell or do you buy your own? Take them in, drop all parcels out of bags and then refill the next day?

The Royal Mail provide you with the sacks for free. They supply pretty much everything for free - plastic tie wraps to seal the sacks, airmail labels etc. etc. All you have to do extra is print out a summary sheet of your order and put this in a yellow pouch (provided for free!) which gets attached to one of the mail sacks and produce your own PPI labels like these:

I print them onto an A4 sheet of address labels, and then just stick them on each parcel or large letter.

I also bought myself a simple set of digital scales from ebay for about £5 and and postal ruler from ebay: - useful for determining if something is a large letter or packet.

Also is the year from say 2010 jan-2010 dec and so on or is it from when you open the account?

Gemma

From when you open the account, I think.

Its been a double whammy for us - saved us time & money. If you can, just do it.

Jeff

 

[gemd89]

I was thinking about getting the stamp version so i dont have to print the labels - its called STA or something. Anyone use this stamp?

Gemma

 

[oldeagleeye]

Quite a few - around 30/50 at the moment!

Gemma

Gemma. This thread has to be a wind-up. Sorry babe but I am not wasting my time putting together a business plan for you when I can't rely on the numbers that you give me.

Now I can say no more than that under the PM rules.

As a seperate matter and following on from advice on other threads may I suggest however that you come back and ask this question in at least 3 - 5 years time. Then members will get a trruer picture of your business.

Rob

WHOOPS.

I have just heard on LBC the sheer joy coming from the new young and well educated professionals in Eygpt who are determined about building a democrocy now that the President has finally caved in.

These ain't no extremists they are determined to re-establish their tourist trade not only withe the west but Israel.

If your in the partywear business then expect to see a surge in demand for Egyption theme nights.

 

[JamieM]

I was thinking about getting the stamp version so i dont have to print the labels - its called STA or something. Anyone use this stamp?

Gemma

What? The rubber ink stamp? Are you mad?

Just make an address label template with the PPI already on them. Or if you don't use labels and use your packing slip for addressing then see if you can work out a way to put the PPI on it.

 

[Podge]

@ OEE
Why PM somebody when you can see a chance to try and diminish them on an open forum hey!!

 

[dynamic08]

People usually do give a slightly higher number than is actually true!

 

[Jeff FV]

What? The rubber ink stamp? Are you mad?

Just make an address label template with the PPI already on them. Or if you don't use labels and use your packing slip for addressing then see if you can work out a way to put the PPI on it.

Agree with Jamie - we did have an ink stamp made up, but its so much easier to print off a page of sticky labels with the PPI on them.

Jeff

 

[oldeagleeye]

@ OEE
Why PM somebody when you can see a chance to try and diminish them on an open forum hey!!

I never intended to discredit Gemma. It was intended as a gentle slap on the wrist for not only wasting my time but other members too.

I mean the lass has 4 threads on the go at the moment. All are wasting your time as I would have told you before I got her PM.

Mind you. Perhaps you can all help ME. After nearly at year at trying to market my on-line shop I will soon be sending out 4 small parcels a week.

I will be wanting cheap postage and templates because as it is 4 stamps is a lot to lick. I am thinking of asking the royal mail to provide sacks and collect rather that put these 4 small parcels into a a carrier bag and take to the post office. Although I confess I am exaggerating the numbers slightly so the bag don't weigh more than a tin of baked beans.

I am looking for a warehouse as I can't cope at home.

I need to know all there is about employing some-one.

Thank you oh so much guys in anticipation of your oh so kind help.

Oh almost forget 3 out of those 4 parcels are sent by drop shipping. What sort of deal would I get on buying 1 stamp a week.

 

[valentine1970]

I never intended to discredit Gemma. It was intended as a gentle slap on the wrist for not only wasting my time but other members too.

I mean the lass has 4 threads on the go at the moment. All are wasting your time as I would have told you before I got her PM.

Mind you. Perhaps you can all help ME. After nearly at year at trying to market my on-line shop I will soon be sending out 4 small parcels a week.

I will be wanting cheap postage and templates because as it is 4 stamps is a lot to lick. I am thinking of asking the royal mail to provide sacks and collect rather that put these 4 small parcels into a a carrier bag and take to the post office. Although I confess I am exaggerating the numbers slightly so the bag don't weigh more than a tin of baked beans.

I am looking for a warehouse as I can't cope at home.

I need to know all there is about employing some-one.

Thank you oh so much guys in anticipation of your oh so kind help.

Oh almost forget 3 out of those 4 parcels are sent by drop shipping. What sort of deal would I get on buying 1 stamp a week.

Flaming hell, seems a bit harsh.

 

[oldeagleeye]

Harsh. I was prepared to spend days helping this young lady by putting together a proper biz plan and finding her better suppliers. I had even asked an old client a favour in letting her have some stock on sale or return.

Next thing I know she is back on the forum again wasting other members time as well asking about sacks - discounts and or high volume postage.

All in all I think this young lady needs a wake up call. Literally as she seems to be living in some sort of dream world .

Reminds me of the first verse of a song I used to sing to get my daughter to sleep when she was 7 or 8..

Bows and flows of angels hair
and ice cream castles in the air
and fethear canyons everywhere
I have looked at life that way................

Pity they grow up ain't it. Your turn now Gemma. The party business ain't no party.

 

[gemd89]

Thanks for all the advice on the thread especially jeff that has been ever so helpful.

I hope i can use all the advice on these threads for going forward and prove some of you wrong about my abilities to run a profitable business.

Gemma

 

[oldeagleeye]

Good luck Gemma. May I suggest that you learn the following equasion before you buy or sell anything else.

The price you sell any item for EXCLUDING postage MINUS the cost you pay for the item including vat and postage.

That is your gross profit margin and without knowing that you might just as well give the stuff away.

 

[Bruvver]

@oldeagleeye

When are you updating your "Importance of timing" on 'The Challenge' Blog ?

Thought the question of timing was relevant to this thread too.......that's why I'm asking here.

 

[360interactive]

@oldeagleeye

When are you updating your "Importance of timing" on 'The Challenge' Blog ?

Thought the question of timing was relevant to this thread too.......that's why I'm asking here.

What is the address again?

 

[Podge]

http://oldeagleeye.tumblr.com/1

 

[dynamic08]

Is the £500 charge from royal mail charged upfront?

 

[Bruvver]

Have you tried different couriers ?
I had a visit from a rep for Fastway couriers, this week, they have a minimum spend to start, but they seem cheap to me, they pick up with next day delivery.

 

[oldeagleeye]

The timing section on the blog has been updated.

Rob

 

[fulfil_co]

Is the £500 charge from royal mail charged upfront?

Yes, they then refund it once you hit £15,000 spend for the year. Why not save yourself the hassle and outsource to a fulfilment house like us who already have access to all the discounts?