Royal Mail OBA questions

[Greenslake]

Hi! I have an OBA account that I would like to start using over my current standard click and drop account. I have a few queries that someone that has used their OBA to send parcels might be able to answer, I have sent an email to Royal Mail but as expected the replies are slow currently.

- Can the small parcels be included within the same bags as the large letters or do the small parcels need to be in their own seperate bag?

- How do we pack the International letters/ parcels? From what we have read so far we need to seperate the EU and the rest of the world letters/ parcels but can the International tracked and signed and International signed be included within the same mail bag?

 

[kulture]

Hi! I have an OBA account that I would like to start using over my current standard click and drop account. I have a few queries that someone that has used their OBA to send parcels might be able to answer, I have sent an email to Royal Mail but as expected the replies are slow currently.

- Can the small parcels be included within the same bags as the large letters or do the small parcels need to be in their own seperate bag?

- How do we pack the International letters/ parcels? From what we have read so far we need to seperate the EU and the rest of the world letters/ parcels but can the International tracked and signed and International signed be included within the same mail bag?

You need to do a seperate bag for each type of mail. So one bag for large letters, one bag for parcels. Regarding international you definately need to seperate EU from ROW and untracked from tracked. I am not 100% sure about seperating tracked and signed from just signed but as it is a different bag label, then it should be a different bag. Failure to do this is a £25 a bag charge.

 

[Greenslake]

You need to do a seperate bag for each type of mail. So one bag for large letters, one bag for parcels. Regarding international you definately need to seperate EU from ROW and untracked from tracked. I am not 100% sure about seperating tracked and signed from just signed but as it is a different bag label, then it should be a different bag. Failure to do this is a £25 a bag charge.

Hey! Than you for the response it is much appreciated! I think we are slowly getting the hang of it I'm sure it will be much easier when you are up and running with it too. The only reason I was uncertain about the large letters amd small parcels was from their own tutorial videos, they sort the letters and parcels and put them into the same grey mail bag. I can't link the video but it was from their own "How to present your mail" tutorial video. Thanks again!

 

[LPB 123]

You need to do a seperate bag for each type of mail. So one bag for large letters, one bag for parcels. Regarding international you definately need to seperate EU from ROW and untracked from tracked. I am not 100% sure about seperating tracked and signed from just signed but as it is a different bag label, then it should be a different bag. Failure to do this is a £25 a bag charge.

We put EU and ROW mail in sacks together. We also put our untracked and tracked international orders in together (open sack - no mail tag or cable tie), we've never had an issue and never had a bag charge.
We only do about 10 international orders a day with Royal Mail though, so maybe not an issue for us doing this as it's small volume. If you have a large volume of international orders It would probably warrant splitting them up.

For UK orders, we split up as:

Royal Mail 24 LL
Royal Mail 48 LL
Royal Mail 24 Parcel
Royal Mail 48 Parcel
Special Delivery LL and parcels

You're probably best speaking to your local depot / collection driver to see how they want the mail presented.

 

[kulture]

I have to agree its best to talk with your local depot. They may find it easier if you break the rules and combine into reasonable sacks. However you run the risk that some officious manager or supervisor changes their mind and you get caught out. The other point to consider is that at random times revenue protection will select your account for inspection, and this may involve all your mail being kept seperate for audit. This may trip the charge.