Royal Mail OBA - first/second class or 24/48?

Hi folks,

I've been using the codes BPL and BPR on OBA for a year or so now, and wondered if someone who has used both those codes and the 24/48 could highlight the benefits in potentially moving over to this for us, we spoke to someone at Royal Mail but they were as clear as mud.

We send 60% UK and 35% Europe, 5% rest of world. Within that UK number it's about 80% large letter size and en 20% small parcel, anything bigger we've used a courier generally.

We are VAT registered, but as we're on the flat rate scheme currently we wouldn't be claiming back.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

Hi JPMiddleton, I do what you are asking. I used to send using the BPL code and now use CRL. I used to send by 1st class, i now send by RM48, as I wanted to test whether the customer satisfaction would drop. It is slightly slower than 1st class / RM24 but it is a lot cheaper and I've not had any negative feedback. What it is great for is anything over 1kg. on BPL you will be paying £5+ on anything over 1kg, CRL is around £2.80 to £3.20 depending on RM24 or RM48. As far as the post office depot is concerned they treat RM24 the same as 1st and RM48 the same as 2nd. One thing I've found is that if you have a signed for service it tends to arrive quicker! I am looking into tracked RM48 as apparently this is cheaper than signed and you still have an idea where your parcels are going. With regards to pricing, it is more expensive up to 1kg for a small parcel (£3.13 of which 52p is VAT vs £2.90 both for 1st class / 24 500g small parcel). Over 1kg it is cheaper, also worth noting is that on the CRL code the size breakdowns over 1kg are 1.25, 1.5, 1.75 whereas the usual 1st class is 1kg then 2kg. hope that makes sense!

 

Perfect sense, thanks for the reply.

The majority of our post is large letter size, of the 20% small parcel size we send - most are under 1KG. So, for not, we're going to stick with BPL.

One question question though please - "As far as the post office depot is concerned they treat RM24 the same as 1st and RM48 the same as 2nd" Does that mean it arrives in the same timescale as second class - even though it's 24?

 

Sorry I was a bit ambiguous! The RM24 is treated same as first class (both have red PPI labels) and the RM48 is treated the same as 2nd class (both use green PPI labels). I drop my mail off at the depot itself so speak to the guys on the desk. 1st/24 is 1-2 days 2nd/48 is 2-3 days. Anecdotally I've found that tracked/signed services arrive quicker (both domestically and internationally).

 

I have been using BPL and OLA almost for a year now. Majority of our items are large letter. Although our collection is at 5pm, our clients are very happy with dispatch service and never had any problem. I wouldn't change it to fist class.

 

BPL is first class - do you mean you wouldn't change to 24/ CRL?

Thanks for clearing that up!

 

We're in a similar position as you, about 70-80% of ours are LL.

I use BPL for Large letter as we're not vat registered we can't claim back the VAT this works out cheaper for us.

Our small parcels <£30 value are sent using BPL as we can (& do) claim compensation for loss on those, bigger or with more value is sent CRL signed for

Most people are not aware BPL you can claim compensation for loss still but this is what sold it to us in the beginning & we claim for about £30 worth of orders every 6-8 weeks as we claim when there are a few missing orders.


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I use 'second class' under BPL code and get 'second class' stamps on letters. I never use 24/CRL and i don't plan to use.

Next day delivery on OBA is a bit problem for me. I normally send large letter from post office for £6.45 but OBA gives for the same item and weight £7.15.. I have spoken to them couple of times, they can see the difference as well but they don't correct the price!

 

The disparity in pricing for special delivery is apparently because they are forced to add VAT for businesses on the price on OBA by the EU.

I only use first class and would only use 24 if I switched, thanks for the feedback though.

 

I hope the rumour about large letter size being restricted to non consumer items from 1 April next year is not true. I can see the logic as RM would get another £1+ for each equivalent parcel but I suspect the loss in volume would be quite high killing off many ebayers. It seems from their results today that the changes to small/large parcels has hit their volumes so am hoping they will proceed with caution and resist milking businesses for everything they can get.

 

Well it was banned for business mail users last April, so maybe that is the rumour that you're still seeing knocking around? A lot of people thought that was across the board then, but it wasn't.

 

No this was recent. I can understand why they would do it as there is no competition at that end of the parcel market and even if the volumes halved they would still make more money (the issue would be policing it)....we shall see next April.