Royal Mail charges and online postage

[Jyemstone]

Hi all

I’m still reading and researching delivery costs and may start with recorded delivery for my parcels. This will cost around £6.60-£7.30 depending on weight – but hopefully most of them should arrive at their destination! I haven’t managed to find a courier service that most people have had success with and is reasonably priced, but will keep looking.

Does anyone use their the Post Office service where you can buy and print their postage using their and how do you find it? I think it may be cheaper than a franking machine or smart stamp to begin with as I’d be just printing labels.

Thanks

Jem

 

[pmb2009]

I can recommend Business Post.

 

[Allan123]

FedEx are cheap and the most reliable courier i've used. I've tried City Link, TNT, Fastway etc etc.

Upto 25kg Next Day £5.95 + Vat. Or we send quite a few FedEx Bags, which are decent sized, upto 10kg for £4.95 + Vat. Obvously price depends on how many your sending per week, more the better, you can screw down the price with your Area Manager if your sending huge volumes. I send between 30-80 a week.

Royal Mail's not very competitive unless your sending small items under 1kg or if you use there OBA service under you can use the averga eweight of all your parcels and get some decent discounts, but you need to be sending various weighted items to get the average weight down. We do everything from 50grams upto 2kg with RM so you get a different average weight everyday. If all your parcels are the same weight it probably wouldn't be worth using them unless there under 1kg.

 

[CarlBkk]

Royal Mail pass parcels over a certain weight to Parcelforce. Parcelforce contracts however, aren't very good - you have to keep sending a LOT per month to get the £8 or so for 48 hour delivery.

I moved to interparcel dot co uk which are much better, no minimum, everything done online the same as Parcelforce but no need for any contract, and prices are by far clearer and cheaper. They use the cheapest other courier at the time (so may be their own, DPD, TNT, Citylink, FedEx etc.) and you can decide which and see all the charges. As a guide, a 7kg parcel will cost £7 48hr delivery.

 

[pmb2009]

Also try myhermes dot co dot uk.

Their prices start at £3.99 inc VAT, although you do pay another £0.98 if you want a signature. You also pay extra for compensation cover. But still cheap...

 

[Christiane]

I use the Bag It service from Business Post, between £3.50 to £4, but we use RM Special delivery for Scotland and NI.

 

[Rhyl Lightworks]

I use a RM online account for most deliveries, either 1st. Class or SD (you can mix them and other services if you wish). You print your own labels, can have the parcels collected if you spend above a certain limit, or take them yourself to either a local main PO or direct to the sorting office (my preferred method as the sorting office is very close, and they will still go that day up to after 6pm).

I have found this to be far cheaper and more reliable than any other carrier (less than 0.5% of parcels give any trouble at all). My only criticisms are their website is a little slow at busy times (but not unduly so), and their special delivery rates jump from under 2kg, which is very reasonable, to under 10kg, which makes sending out say a 3kg parcel quite expensive; in fact, if it is possible to do so, we have found it is often cheaper to send out 2 SD parcels of say 1.9kg each, than 1 of 3.8kg.

Barrie

 

[Jyemstone]

Thanks for the replies peeps.

Good to know there are some decent, competitive alternatives to Royal Mail for my deliveries as I was getting a bit concerned about the cost of postage!

Rhyl Lightworks, thanks for the info about RM online. Yes, their website can be mighty slow but as I have a sorting office quite near to me, i'll consider giving this service a try as i'll now be starting the business sending items which are very light in weight, so it should be work fine to begin with.

Jem

 

[adriennep]

We always use RM online postage as it's so easy - and if you are sending things that have to be signed for, once you've printed your own label, you can usually get the receipt done at the post office without having to queue.

Very pricey for sending stuff abroad with decent compensation included however.

 

[privateer]

With a decent number of packages per week, you can get 75% discount on the standard tariff from UPS. If you're doing fewer packages, the middlemen such as interparcel are a good option with no commitment, and you can compare several different rates on-screen.

 

[4little1s]

I have just switched over to my hermes which are very good value....so issues so far.

 

[privateer]

I have just switched over to my hermes which are very good value....so issues so far.

Yes - Hermes has just started to show up as an alternative through interparcel. Cheaper, but I stuck with UPS/DHL booked via interparcel during this busy period. Might try them next year.

One thing about some couriers - I get the impression that newcomers and cost-cutters are subcontracting delivery to some far-too-casual drivers. Even WH Smiths doing drop shipping of stuff from Gardners Books used a pair of OAPs in a family hatchback (they needed my help to get the 4 filing cabinets out of their car). I asked about signing the delivery paperwork and they told me they'd signed it themselves the previous day and sent it back. :|

Worse still: when I unpacked them all 4 cabinets were damaged (dropped on a corner, dented and out of true). I'd rather pay a couple of quid extra and get a proper courier to do it door to door.

 

[ServersandSpares]

We use APC Overnight in the main, and in 2 and 1/2 years have never had a lost parcel,and only three late timed deliveries. Occasionally we use Interparcel, for heavier items (over 30kg) or P4D who seem to be just edging Interparcel on price. Customer service is very good for both.

If you are paying as much as £7 to send a parcel, there is no way I'd send with Royal Mail when there are so many good couriers out there that you can rely on, or if there is a problem, you can actually get through to a real person and not spend hours in an automated system that just eventually cuts you off.

Julie

 

[m31]

Yes - Hermes has just started to show up as an alternative through interparcel.

I use both occasionally, no issues so far. Always booking myHermes on their own website though, it's just 3.99 inc VAT for packets upto 2kg. It seems to be more expensive on Interparcel website £4.99 + VAT

Even WH Smiths doing drop shipping of stuff from Gardners Books used a pair of OAPs in a family hatchback

Probably using myHermes!