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Rolo Tomasi

Free Member
Nov 19, 2009
150
33
Derby
We have been using Packetpost for the last couple of years and I dont think you can beat the cost. However I have just found out that from 2nd April they will be adding VAT to the cost and as we use the Flat Rate Scheme for VAT this will push our postage bills up by 20%.

Does anyone have any recommendations for couriers that we could get quotes from to make sure that Packetpost is still competitive after April. We send about 5000 parcels a year.

Thanks
 
Same issue here and also for some of my clients who also had the bombshell today. With no compensation except for tracked we will be looking for alternatives on higher value shipments for sure. I doubt large letter and small packets 1-250 g will be cheaper elsewhere though.
They have to pay for that Pension scheme somehow so expecting an above inflation price increase as well :)
 
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The imposition of VAT on all postal charges means we are going to have to put prices up, but Royal Mail will still be cheaper than couriers for packets averaging below 2kg.

Barrie
 
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kulture said:
Silly question, but if the extra 20% postage makes that much of a difference, why not come off the flat rate scheme and claim back the 20%?
Click to expand...

The additional postage will cost me about £3kpa and I think that I make slightly more than this on the Flat Rate Scheme as a lot of my purchases do not have VAT on them. But either way, I will be less profitable from April unless I increase my prices which I am reluctant to do at the moment as everyone seems to be shopping on price alone.
 
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kulture said:
Silly question, but if the extra 20% postage makes that much of a difference, why not come off the flat rate scheme and claim back the 20%?
Click to expand...

Same issue here the flat rate dependant on category of products is 8% of turnover between £73,000 and £150,000 vs input/output (with extra admin costs of accounting) vs £2-3k of VAT on Royal Mail.
 
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To be honest, if it adds so much to a postal bill, then your postal bill has got to be over £20k. With such a large outgoing I would have thought that your turnover should be approaching the upper limit for the flat rate scheme anyway. Sooner or latter you have to do full VAT accounting. It is not too time consuming really, it sounds harder than it is. It certainly doe not cost any more in accountants fees if you do it yourself.
 
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Thankfully we are, and always have done proper full VAT accounting so we will get it back, just makes more of a cash flow issue when RM take bills of upto 5K at a time for some months in the busy season.
 
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paretowasright said:
The letter said normal stamps would be exempt so perhaps we will all be licking 100's a day instead of PPI! :)
Click to expand...
hi there franking machine prices are exempt upto a certain level.
You can still use any franking machine to buy all the Royal Mail services which aren't affected by VAT, like 1st and 2nd Class, Special Delivery™ Next Day, International Airmail and International Signed For.
im based in alfreton and am an independent reseller for Pitney Bowes and Neopost.
i would be happy to advise.
craig
 
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Those which use Packet post (EG items over 25mm in thickness which don't go through that plastic guide RM provided sometime ago) = Packet Post. Items under 25mm are Large letter (Depending on their Length & Width)

RM are no longer offering packet post 0-100, 101-250, 251-500, 501-750 price points on 1st and 2nd class. There will be 1 rate for 0-750g (it will be the same). Some small large items selling cheaply (Even if they are light in weight will be suffering massive increases for delivery - Make sure you check your listings, sites and Amazon etc...)

Rates will be as follows [Plus that VAT of course]

Packet 1st 2nd
0-100g £2.36 £1.92
101-250g £2.36 £1.92
251-500g £2.36 £1.92
501-750g £2.36 £1.92
751-1000g £3.29 £2.54
1001-1250g £4.57
1251-1500g £5.38 :eek: >>>>>> At this point you may as well use a courier.
1501-1750g £6.18 :eek:
1751-2000g £6.89 :eek:
2001-4000g £9.00 :eek:

Hope this helps.
 
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Hi,

We offer discounted courier prices for SMEs. However, if your items are under a couple of kgs then a previous poster is correct - the PO is still your cheapest bet. You are sending high volumes though and if you're over 2kg then we can certainly have a chat to see if we can help :o)

Nat
 
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I am currently clearing all lower value (below £10) small packet type items (ie bigger than 25mm inc packaging) as a rise from £1.30 ish to £2.36 + VAT is going to kill that for us. We also have a growing number of competitors who seem to be busy fools and are selling stuff at cost or 20% max margin so will leave them to it....and no they are not also clearing lines ...its been going on for 6+ months.
 
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moviezone said:
Those which use Packet post (EG items over 25mm in thickness which don't go through that plastic guide RM provided sometime ago) = Packet Post. Items under 25mm are Large letter (Depending on their Length & Width)

RM are no longer offering packet post 0-100, 101-250, 251-500, 501-750 price points on 1st and 2nd class. There will be 1 rate for 0-750g (it will be the same). Some small large items selling cheaply (Even if they are light in weight will be suffering massive increases for delivery - Make sure you check your listings, sites and Amazon etc...)

Rates will be as follows [Plus that VAT of course]

Packet 1st 2nd
0-100g £2.36 £1.92
101-250g £2.36 £1.92
251-500g £2.36 £1.92
501-750g £2.36 £1.92
751-1000g £3.29 £2.54
1001-1250g £4.57
1251-1500g £5.38 :eek: >>>>>> At this point you may as well use a courier.
1501-1750g £6.18 :eek:
1751-2000g £6.89 :eek:
2001-4000g £9.00 :eek:

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Is this PPI Packetpost,the service based on average weight?
If it is, you need to check your figures!
 
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You guys are talking of a 20% increase. I too am on the flat rate VAT scheme (but getting close to the limit)

Our most common Royal Mail send it a 250g large letter 2nd class. The cost will increase from 55p to 89p. Close on 40%!!!!
 
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a4labels said:
You guys are talking of a 20% increase. I too am on the flat rate VAT scheme (but getting close to the limit)

Our most common Royal Mail send it a 250g large letter 2nd class. The cost will increase from 55p to 89p. Close on 40%!!!!
Click to expand...

You could try using "1st and 2nd class via account" (page 4).This does not give any bulk discount and you pay per item not the average weight.
This is non vatable and the price for your most common posting is 65p...
BUT this price is subject to an (unknown) increase sometime in April!
Whether they keep the weight bands aswell is another thing!!!
 
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Raspberry said:
w
w
w
dot
royalmail
dot
com
prices/2012

Open the 'downloadable guide' at the top.
Packetpost is on page 6 of the pdf.
Click to expand...

The prices quotes by Moviezone are definitely correct I have double checked with RM this PM after you queried them. I think you must be looking at the non VAT able new account prices on the left hand side of the PDF which will be subject to a an inline price increase by mid April and may also not be done with average weight TBC (see recent postings)
 
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Page 4 standard account mail 0-750g = £2.36 + vat
Page 6 packetpost 0-750g = £2.19

what's the difference ?
 
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arcon5 said:
Page 4 standard account mail 0-750g = £2.36 + vat
Page 6 packetpost 0-750g = £2.19

what's the difference ?
Click to expand...
Page 6 is based on average weight per item,so you could have some packets above and some below the 750g.
Page 4 is the cost per item and does not attract vat.
 
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paretowasright said:
The prices quotes by Moviezone are definitely correct I have double checked with RM this PM after you queried them. I think you must be looking at the non VAT able new account prices on the left hand side of the PDF which will be subject to a an inline price increase by mid April and may also not be done with average weight TBC (see recent postings)
Click to expand...
The above you mention is the "1st and 2nd class via account" and not
Packetpost.They are totally different posting methods.
Packetpost,based on average weight,has completely different figures from the ones mentioned in the earlier post.
How many posts do you have to make to be able to post a link to a screenshot?
 
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Sorry,the last couple of posts were me trying to fit an image in the thread :redface:
As you can see,i didn't succeed!
The Packetpost rate table is on the actual physical page 8 of the pdf,page 6 i referred to earlier is the page number in Adobe.(hope that makes sense)
 
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Packetpost 1st Class 2nd Class
Format Weight Price Price
Letter 0-100g Customers are recommended to use
Standard Account Mail for Letters
1st Class 2nd Class
Large Letter
0-100g £0.650 £0.500
101-250g £0.904 £0.740
251-500g £1.219 £0.993
501-750g £1.730 £1.40

Packet 1st 2nd
0-750g £2.190 £1.630
751-1000g £2.570 £2.080
1001-1250g £3.080 £2.450
1251-1500g £3.330 £2.660
1501-1750g £3.740 £2.990
1751-2000g £4.140 £3.310
2001-2250g £5.310
VAT not included.
This is just a snippet from the pdf.
I do not know where the figures quoted earlier come from,but it is not for packetpost.
This is for the packetpost service with packets priced per average weight.
 
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Capture.png

VAT NOT INCLUDED.
These prices have been agreed by the regulator, the implementation date has not.
I do not know where those earlier figures came from, or what the RM and the other member
were talking about when confirming the earlier figures were correct.
 
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Rates will be as follows [Plus that VAT of course]

Packet 1st 2nd
0-100g £2.36 £1.92
101-250g £2.36 £1.92
251-500g £2.36 £1.92
501-750g £2.36 £1.92
751-1000g £3.29 £2.54
1001-1250g £4.57
1251-1500g £5.38 :eek: >>>>>> At this point you may as well use a courier.
1501-1750g £6.18 :eek:
1751-2000g £6.89 :eek:
2001-4000g £9.00 :eek:

As posted by Moviezone...perhaps we are talking about different services?
 
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Raspberry said:
Rates will be as follows [Plus that VAT of course]

Packet 1st 2nd
0-100g £2.36 £1.92
101-250g £2.36 £1.92
251-500g £2.36 £1.92
501-750g £2.36 £1.92
751-1000g £3.29 £2.54
1001-1250g £4.57
1251-1500g £5.38 :eek: >>>>>> At this point you may as well use a courier.
1501-1750g £6.18 :eek:
1751-2000g £6.89 :eek:
2001-4000g £9.00 :eek:

As posted by Moviezone...perhaps we are talking about different services?
Click to expand...

Hi well done on embedding that :)
One is packetpost daily rate the other is packetpost flat rate.
From memory the daily rate is for 5000+ pa and the flat rate is for 10,000+ but I stand corrected. The bone of contention about small packets 0-749 grams old vs proposed pricing still remains with slightly less pain @ £2.19 for packetpost flat rate + VAT or £2.32 on daily rate.
 
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If you use packet post to send -250g packets as your main thing then surely you' be better off using a franking machine with standard 1st and 2nd class, as the coming increase surely cant be as savage? Anyone care to speculate what the mystery mid-april increase might be on packets? If they get rid of the lower weight band like on packet post then a lot of people will stop selling video games (this is what i sell) on Ebay unless they allow more than £2.50 postage! Currently I charge £1.99 for a 200g packet and pay £1.48 plus 8p for envelope. A small increase would be absorbed but to put a 200g packet up to 2.16 would be a real blow!
 
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The retail information is due out next week...

If they don't put the prices up and remove the bands on retail post in the same way then there's got to be some questions about whether this is Royal Mail or Robin Hood... except businesses like mine are anything but rich...
 
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