Royal Mail are "withdrawing Standard Parcels".

[Sky_Blue_Dave]

Come on are you really happy with the standard parcels service. I won't be crying at its loss.
The parcel section of the Royal Mail was hived off many years ago and it is called Parcel Force. I don't expect the RM to provide a service for parcels.
There are many couriers out there doing that service.

Surely Royal Mail is for letters, small packets and small parcels. They not geared up for large parcels - they only use small vans to deliver.

Royal Mail have been under extreme pressure to cut cost and become a profitable organisation.

Problem is we don't like change - we coped with large letters and small packets ok.

Rant over.

 

[APC Nexday Overnite Ltd]

We've noticed an increase in "small" traffic due to these changes and had new queries regarding using us as we're worth paying that little bit extra, the same as and sometimes even cheaper on the small parcels.

Am I the only one happy?

 

[aquarium plant food UK]

We have been trying to get a courier, so far only DHL and Interlink have bothered to get back to us. Our most popular item, unluckily falls into the medium bracket now, raising the price from £5.30 to £8.00, awesome. So couriers it it for us, if any actually get back to us!

 

[Justin Smith]

Come on are you really happy with the standard parcels service. I won't be crying at its loss.
The parcel section of the Royal Mail was hived off many years ago and it is called Parcel Force. I don't expect the RM to provide a service for parcels.
There are many couriers out there doing that service.

Surely Royal Mail is for letters, small packets and small parcels. They not geared up for large parcels - they only use small vans to deliver.

Royal Mail have been under extreme pressure to cut cost and become a profitable organisation.

Problem is we don't like change - we coped with large letters and small packets ok.

Rant over.

The real problem is sending stuff over 61cm to N Ireland and NW Scotland. Up to now we`ve been able to accept orders from those locations for most aerials, but from the 2nd of April the RM will no longer carry them. Thus, British citizens in living in those locations will not have the same service they had before because we all know that carriers (all of them) charge a huge premium to send stuff to those areas.
I`m using a term like British citizens because the RM is supposed to give all residents of the UK the same service, most people think that should be the case and are prepared to allow a bit of a subsidy for it. In fact it`s the basis of the Universal Service Obligation, which the RM have circumvented in this case by simply withdrawing from Parcel post.
The Parcelforce thing is a red herring because, for businesses, they were never covered by the USO, i.e. they could (and did/do) charge a large supplement for N Ireland and NW Scotland.

 

[KateCB]

Also, compensation on non-recorded/tracked items will now be limited to £20

First/Second class stamp prices will not change however prices for parcels will go up for both first and second class items.

Recorded/signed for addon has gone upto £1.10 from £0.95p

Also, you won't be able to send 2nd class parcels for item's weighing 2kg or more, which was possible with standard parcel.

Example, a 2.1kg item sent Standard Parcel now costs £8.80 provides, £46 insurance will shoot upto £13.35 and the compensation will come down to £20 unless you pay extra £1.10 for Recorded/Signed-for addon.

AND if you use PPI, there is NO COMPENSATION at all for signed for/recorded.........only if you use special delivery which costs an arm and a leg!

I can't believe the costs, they are killing us! We sell a lot on ebay and free delivery is a given these days, so everything we sell is free delivery - 2nd class recorded - the build in for this won't cover the new costs, so our prices are going to have to increase too.....

 

[KateCB]

We've noticed an increase in "small" traffic due to these changes and had new queries regarding using us as we're worth paying that little bit extra, the same as and sometimes even cheaper on the small parcels.

Am I the only one happy?

Probably - a 'little bit extra' is one thing, but...... we had our local area manager out to see us from APC as we spend around £1600 a month with Royal Mail on top of our APC spend - they wanted all the business & we would have been happy for them to have it, however, they were too expensive for our smaller items, and frankly no compensation offered when they lose something - which in truth they have done only 4 tims in 11 years.....to pay for insurance for each item makes APC £3.00 dearer than RM Special Delivery AND RM special delivery doesn't have a £50 excess when they lose something as APC do.....Its sad that APC can't see the gap here and do something about it, in order tog row and retain their customer base.

 

[planemadgirly]

AND if you use PPI, there is NO COMPENSATION at all for signed for/recorded.........only if you use special delivery which costs an arm and a leg!

I can't believe the costs, they are killing us! We sell a lot on ebay and free delivery is a given these days, so everything we sell is free delivery - 2nd class recorded - the build in for this won't cover the new costs, so our prices are going to have to increase too.....

Killing us too...what with the new seller email that arrived yday..think we will retire a lot earlier than we planned
We use PPI and they 'lost' a recorded ..which stupid customer services told me i could claim for and after me spending an hour filling in all the gubbins they wanted, 3 weeks later i was told no claims accepted ...so wrong when its RD..think i am going to up all our prices as the things that we send RD..that has had a hike too!!
Our sales last weekend were the lowest ever..am sure they are doing something with their searches..grim!

 

[morganhomeimprovements]

I tend to use UPS lost faith in royal mail along time ago with items never arriving at there destination

 

[Justin Smith]

I tend to use UPS lost faith in royal mail along time ago with items never arriving at there destination

To be fair to the RM, I think we`ve only ever had two items which got lost, out of thousands we`ve sent over the years. That might partly be due to the fact we get a better class of customer (I`m actually being serious here, we do get a better class of customer ! ) plus the fact anything over £20 in value goes recorded.
Sometimes orders get mislaid but invariably they do turn up, sometimes weeks later.....

 

[The VAT Doctor]

Royal Mail is indeed retrenching I think to a position where they just do the standard letters and small packets deliveries to your door, which arguably is the limit of their Universal obligation. This is certainly what TNT were arguing when they took their big VAT case, as they argued that it was unfair that Royal Mail can offer the services they offer but not charge VAT. Since this case and since a big review of the Universal Obligation, I am seeing many parcel services being treated as VATable by RM, whereas previously they were exempt. But there are good alternatives to RM.

Where I live we have a small technology company that acts as agents for most of the large couriers. They don't get involved in the heavy lifting, figuratively speaking, they interact with your shop account, ebay account etc and act as the middle man, but at a much better price than buying directly.

I used them a lot recently when selling a lot of items and they were amazing and cheap, and explained everything, including customs requirements etc. Looks to be as if their standard service is about £6 for pretty much anything to anywhere in the country and most were delivered the next day. I dare say they might be even be cheaper for a lot of work on a contract.

Happy to pass on their details if anyone wants to talk to them. I have been very, very impressed by them.

 

[paretowasright]

Looks to be as if their standard service is about £6 for pretty much anything to anywhere in the country and most were delivered the next day.

.

I am sure I just saw a pig flying outside

 

[The VAT Doctor]

Oh ye of little faith!

 

[Justin Smith]

Royal Mail is indeed retrenching I think to a position where they just do the standard letters and small packets deliveries to your door, which arguably is the limit of their Universal obligation. This is certainly what TNT were arguing when they took their big VAT case, as they argued that it was unfair that Royal Mail can offer the services they offer but not charge VAT. Since this case and since a big review of the Universal Obligation, I am seeing many parcel services being treated as VATable by RM, whereas previously they were exempt. But there are good alternatives to RM.

Where I live we have a small technology company that acts as agents for most of the large couriers. They don't get involved in the heavy lifting, figuratively speaking, they interact with your shop account, ebay account etc and act as the middle man, but at a much better price than buying directly.

I used them a lot recently when selling a lot of items and they were amazing and cheap, and explained everything, including customs requirements etc. Looks to be as if their standard service is about £6 for pretty much anything to anywhere in the country and most were delivered the next day. I dare say they might be even be cheaper for a lot of work on a contract.

Happy to pass on their details if anyone wants to talk to them. I have been very, very impressed by them.

This thing about the VAT and carriers is a bit of a red herring really, certainly for VAT registered companies. The fact is that if the goods you`re sending out are VATable (and the great majority are) then you have to deduct the VAT from what the customer pays you for the carriage anyway. On the other hand, if you`re VAT registered, and the vast majority of TNT`s customers will be, it makes no difference if there`s VAT on TNT`s service because you just claim it back anyway.

If you`re sending small stuff there`s no carrier that can compete with the RM on price, not even for Amazon. TNT, or any other carrier come to that, is not going to deliver anything for £1 or even £3, not for anyone.
If you`e sending anything to N Ireland, NW Scotland or offshore, again, there`s no carrier that can remotely compete with the RM who lose shed loads of money on those deliveries but have to do them because of the Universal Service Obligation, which is a political thing (and right in my opinion).

 

[APC Nexday Overnite Ltd]

Probably - a 'little bit extra' is one thing, but...... we had our local area manager out to see us from APC as we spend around £1600 a month with Royal Mail on top of our APC spend - they wanted all the business & we would have been happy for them to have it, however, they were too expensive for our smaller items, and frankly no compensation offered when they lose something - which in truth they have done only 4 tims in 11 years.....to pay for insurance for each item makes APC £3.00 dearer than RM Special Delivery AND RM special delivery doesn't have a £50 excess when they lose something as APC do.....Its sad that APC can't see the gap here and do something about it, in order tog row and retain their customer base.

Who has lost the packages four times in 11 years? APC or RM? We have multiple dental laboratories using our services across Bolton and Wigan. In all they send thousands of Mail Packs and Courier Packs each year. Inside the bags are dentures, false teeth, gold fillings etc and some of this work can run into the thousands. Due to the nature of the goods e.g porcelain, ceramic, gold, platinum none of it (with any carrier!) is insured. It would be massively cheaper for these customers to send with the RM as opposed to us (this may not be the case now of course) but they choose not to as one loss could cost them thousands and as yet not one package has been lost, stolen or damaged. Many of these customers I have took on from RM as they've realised that difference in cost is worth paying for.

I think it boils down to what your goods are. If you're selling something for mega cheap on ebay and it gets stolen, goes missing or damaged then perhaps the cheapest possible way is the option to use. If you've got goods which are high in value and you want a service which never loses, damages or delivers late a parcel then perhaps it's worth paying that little bit extra for peace of mind more than anything.

EDIT:

If we had lost four packages from a particular dental laboratory customer it really could have cost them thousands of pounds EACH TIME not to mention causing misery for the patient and perhaps damaging the relationship between them and their customer the dentist.

 

[plymgary]

Just a quick (but important) note on something I've discovered.

If you send over 1000 packets/large letters a year you're entitled to a Royal Mail 24/48 account which makes postage much cheaper. You can see it here.

If you call the business team on 08457 950 950 and ask them for an account. You then either pay for a business collection or you can drop them off at your local sorting office (which I'll do).

If they try to put you off, redial. The first woman I spoke to didn't have a clue but the second one was really good and I'm in the process of getting one.

 

[Justin Smith]

Well we`ve already lost our first order thanks to RM`s withdrawal of standard parcels..... More to the point, the customer, a UK citizen who lives in Belfast, cannot get the same service as he had last week, or that every other Britain living south of Aberdeen can still get now. I really am quite surprised that there hasn`t been more made of this in the papers and by politicians representing constituencies in the affected areas.

 

[P4D | Parcels4Delivery]

We have been trying to get a courier, so far only DHL and Interlink have bothered to get back to us. Our most popular item, unluckily falls into the medium bracket now, raising the price from £5.30 to £8.00, awesome. So couriers it it for us, if any actually get back to us!

Morning,

Drop us a line, we'll get back to you We're now competitive as a courier reseller for parcels under 2kg if you're shipping a high volume.

For a direct quote contact [email protected] or fill out the detail at www.p4d.co.uk/pro.

Cheers,

Nat

 

[Justin Smith]

This is a bit depressing, we`ve lost three orders in the last three days from people in NW Scotland and NI. To be fair it`s not usually as many as that but my heart drops every time we print out an order and get to the address and it`s in NW Scotland or NI. We then have to go through the time consuming motions of requesting a supplement (or a delivery address south of Aberdeen....) which is usually a waste of time because they just cancel the order anyway. I`ve even thought of refunding the customer without even asking for a supplement because it`d save so much time !

Incidentally, I was surprised to hear that many people in Scotland didn`t even know that RM had withdrawn standard parcels !
I`d been told there is a campaign in Scotland aimed at the internet retailers to standardise their carriage terms, i.e. no supplements for those areas, though I have to say I think they`re wasting their time, there`s no way we could absorb the £21 (incl VAT) supplement that TNT charge us for NI and NW Scotland, no way on Fantasy Island...... They want to be aiming their campaign at the carriers to drop their supplements, but that really would be a complete waste of time !

 

[Raw Rob]

We then have to go through the time consuming motions of requesting a supplement (or a delivery address south of Aberdeen....) which is usually a waste of time because they just cancel the order anyway.

You need to update your website so that you can charge the customer the correct delivery price - it will save you time, and some of the sales you have lost might have been fine if they had known the true price up front, just annoyed at having to pay extra.

 

[Esk247]

You need to update your website so that you can charge the customer the correct delivery price - it will save you time, and some of the sales you have lost might have been fine if they had known the true price up front, just annoyed at having to pay extra.

Yes. Do this. Your system should allow for multiple parcel rates to different regions/zones/countries so customers can get a delivery quote BEFORE they spend their money with you.

Most don't mind if they have time to think about it before clicking the buy button. They probably don't like being hurried to pay more over the phone/email when they thought they'd already agreed the price and delivery costs.

 

[Justin Smith]

You need to update your website so that you can charge the customer the correct delivery price - it will save you time, and some of the sales you have lost might have been fine if they had known the true price up front, just annoyed at having to pay extra.

That suggestion would certainly save us time with this problem, but I dob`t think the PayPal shopping cart we use is that sophisticated. I don`t actually see how it`d work anyway because there`s such a massive difference in carriage cost depending on the size and wieght of the parcels, and virtually every order is a different size and weight.

 

[Esk247]

I don`t actually see how it`d work anyway because there`s such a massive difference in carriage cost depending on the size and wieght of the parcels, and virtually every order is a different size and weight.

You may need to look at updating the way your cart works in the future as we can use weight based shipping e.g. 0.1kg:£1.95,0.25kg:£2.95,...and so on

It will be a case of working out the ROI for changing your system. If you're going to be converting another 4/5 customers a week at £50 a pop then it's definitely worth taking a week out to rebuild the cart process.

 

[KateCB]

We've noticed an increase in "small" traffic due to these changes and had new queries regarding using us as we're worth paying that little bit extra, the same as and sometimes even cheaper on the small parcels.

Am I the only one happy?

yep......i use APC but you can't compete with RM on small parcels sadly, and now you have gone for owner drivers the service has frankly gone downhill rapidly.

 

[KateCB]

Who has lost the packages four times in 11 years? APC or RM? We have multiple dental laboratories using our services across Bolton and Wigan. In all they send thousands of Mail Packs and Courier Packs each year. Inside the bags are dentures, false teeth, gold fillings etc and some of this work can run into the thousands. Due to the nature of the goods e.g porcelain, ceramic, gold, platinum none of it (with any carrier!) is insured. It would be massively cheaper for these customers to send with the RM as opposed to us (this may not be the case now of course) but they choose not to as one loss could cost them thousands and as yet not one package has been lost, stolen or damaged. Many of these customers I have took on from RM as they've realised that difference in cost is worth paying for.

I think it boils down to what your goods are. If you're selling something for mega cheap on ebay and it gets stolen, goes missing or damaged then perhaps the cheapest possible way is the option to use. If you've got goods which are high in value and you want a service which never loses, damages or delivers late a parcel then perhaps it's worth paying that little bit extra for peace of mind more than anything.

EDIT:

If we had lost four packages from a particular dental laboratory customer it really could have cost them thousands of pounds EACH TIME not to mention causing misery for the patient and perhaps damaging the relationship between them and their customer the dentist.

I have just seen this, and I am appalled. How dare you suggest that i send out 'cheap' goods via ebay?

For your information.....APC have THIS WEEK lost/mislaid FOUR bespoke made, individually designed, embroidered silk belts. The cost of the products are irrelevant, the cost to us as a business in terms of our customers requirements for delivery time not being met, the replacement of the products, the machine time to re-make them is however, huge.

APC have also lost software, karate suits AND a punch bag..... and within the last 3 months.Don't you dare to state that APC never lose anything, or deliver late, you WILL lose that one! I can prove that APC lose things, fail to deliver on time and damage things....

I Like APC, but they are not as you appear to suggest, perfect.

 

[DesignStation]

Have you looked at a company called OCSWORLDWIDE CO UK ?

We have been using them for some time for our larger parcels, and have had no trouble with deliveries in the UK, they pick up and International parcels are easy too ....

Jackie

 

[Justin Smith]

We must be a bit slow on the uptake.
RM increased their prices in April but we`ve only just realised that it`s actually cheaper to send two 1Kg parcels with RM than it is to send one 2Kg parcel.

0 to 1Kg small parcel - 1st class = £2.65 2nd class = £2.25
1 to 2Kg small parcel - 1st class = £5.85 2nd class = £4.60

How does that work ? ! ?
Apparently they`re making more money than ever, when they don`t even know what they`re bleedin` doing !

 

[Jayser100]

I think Royal Mail need to be very, very careful. By their own admission, the business guys like us give them is what keeps them going in the face of falling letter business. But now, alternatives loom as they become less attractively priced for what can, at times, be a pretty ropey service. We used to send large boxes through Interparcel (usually UPS as a courier) and smaller ones, or 'packets' as they used to be, through RM but now, after their resizing and introduction of medium parcels, it is no longer more economical to use them against the fantastic Interparcel economy service price, given the fact the latter is 100% reliable. RM recently lost a box of 20 pairs of sports sunglasses we sent to Amazon's warehouse in Staffordshire on a Recorded 1st service - we lose the glasses, and we lose a percentage of the invoice as punishment, plus we had to pay to reship another load. That's the end of that business then - it's UPS (via Interparcel) from now on, even for small boxes of product.

 

[paretowasright]

Sorry to hear about that....I wonder where those sunglasses ended up.
I did not even realise you could use RM to ship into Amazon FBA so we always use Parcelforce.

 

[Justin Smith]

I think Royal Mail need to be very, very careful. By their own admission, the business guys like us give them is what keeps them going in the face of falling letter business. But now, alternatives loom as they become less attractively priced for what can, at times, be a pretty ropey service. We used to send large boxes through Interparcel (usually UPS as a courier) and smaller ones, or 'packets' as they used to be, through RM but now, after their resizing and introduction of medium parcels, it is no longer more economical to use them against the fantastic Interparcel economy service price, given the fact the latter is 100% reliable. RM recently lost a box of 20 pairs of sports sunglasses we sent to Amazon's warehouse in Staffordshire on a Recorded 1st service - we lose the glasses, and we lose a percentage of the invoice as punishment, plus we had to pay to reship another load. That's the end of that business then - it's UPS (via Interparcel) from now on, even for small boxes of product.

To be honest we find the RM actually gives a pretty good service, I can`t actually remember when they last damaged anything and it`s very rare for anything to go missing. TNT, our preferred carrier for most of our stuff (which is too large for RM, particularly now they`ve withdrawn their Standard Parcels service) damage far more than the RM, though to be fair it`s much easier to damage larger parcels than smaller ones.
The big problem with RM (apart from their massive price increase and overly strict interpretation of the sizing) is if anything goes wrong. Trying to contact them is a nightmare, particularly the Local Delivery Offices.

Incidentally, I`m surprised that so many residents of NW Scotland, offshore and NI are taking so long to discover that RM has withdrawn Standard Parcels. Most of them are shocked to discover this and agree with me that their politicians should have done more to object when RM were trying to persuade Post Comm (or whoever it is/was) to accept it to the first place !

 

[Jayser100]

Amazon's carrier rules are complex and it isn't clear you can use RM, however I had correspondence about it with my chief contact at their HQ and she confirmed that for smaller parcels it's fine to use Royal Mail. Until that package went missing, it worked well enough.

I agree that they generally run a good service, my point was more on price in that, if they don't continue to offer a significant saving against using the cheap-as-chips third party courier booking companies like Interparcel and PArcel2Go, they may start losing out big time because the fact is, whatever happened to that recorded package simply wouldn't occur with UPS or, if it did, it would most likely still be traceable.

 

[Justin Smith]

Amazon's carrier rules are complex and it isn't clear you can use RM, however I had correspondence about it with my chief contact at their HQ and she confirmed that for smaller parcels it's fine to use Royal Mail. Until that package went missing, it worked well enough.

I agree that they generally run a good service, my point was more on price in that, if they don't continue to offer a significant saving against using the cheap-as-chips third party courier booking companies like Interparcel and PArcel2Go, they may start losing out big time because the fact is, whatever happened to that recorded package simply wouldn't occur with UPS or, if it did, it would most likely still be traceable.

Even fully tracked parcels get lost, how many of us have heard "it was scanned in at Birmingham but not scanned out, we`ll have to institute searches and get back to you within 48 hours"........
Then they phone you (or even worse, E Mail you) and say "we can`t actually find it, you`ll have to put in a claim".
Then, if you`re with Business Post, there`s a £25 excess, so if it`s worth less than that you won`t actually get anything. That was certainly the case when we were dealing with them a few years back, it really really annoyed me. They lose or damage our stuff, then, if it`s worth less than £25 we don`t even get paid out on it !

 

[Jayser100]

Justin, that happens if you use couriers like Yodel or Hermes but it hasn't happened to us with UPS in five years - not once. They are by far the most reliable couriers out there in my view.