Royal Mail price hike kicks in TODAY with customers now paying £1.45 more – check full list of 8 changes

[POSTMAN]

ROYAL Mail has announced a raft of price hikes coming into force today with customers now paying up to £1.45 more.

Changes affect multiple types of delivery services including Standard, Tracked, Special Delivery and Signed For.

Royal Mail has increased a number of parcel prices with customers seeing increases of over a pound more when sending certain packages.

The new tariffs came into effect today and apply on a number of Royal Mail parcel services, including Standard, Signed For and Tracked.

Price changes start from as little as a 45p increase on 1st Class small parcels up to 2kg and a 35p increase to deliver 2nd Class.

On the other end of the scale, the biggest increases affect customers looking to send a 1st Class medium parcel up to 20kg in-store.

For 1st class postage, the price has leaped from £15.45 to £16.90, an increase of £1.45, and for 2nd class delivery, shoppers will now pay £1.05 extra – from £13.15 to £14.20.

The price hikes arrive in a period the Royal Mail chief executive Alistair Cochrane has described as the company’s “biggest transformation in generations”, following changing consumer habits regarding parcel and letter deliveries.

He also apologised for the company’s performance more recently, saying: “Royal Mail’s performance has not been good enough and I want to say sorry.

“We want to do better and we are absolutely determined to do so.”

Postal delays have continued to plague Brits in recent months, with more than 140 postcodes hit by delays just a few weeks ago.

Last month, residents in some areas were forced to queue for hours at Royal Mail offices and are waiting up to six weeks for postal deliveries.

The company has faced mounting criticism regarding its delivery service after just 77% of first-class letters arrived on time last year – well below the 93% target.

However, Royal Mail has said there were “encouraging signs” of the service improving.

Price changes for standard 1st and 2nd Class parcels:

1st Class small parcel, up to 2kg: £5.45 to £5.90 (45p increase)
2nd Class small parcel, up to 2kg: £4.25 to £4.60 (35p increase)
1st Class medium parcel, up to 2kg: £8.05 to £8.70 (65p increase)
2nd Class medium parcel, up to 2kg: £6.95 to £7.50 (55p increase)
1st Class medium parcel, up to 10kg: £10.05 to £10.90 (85p increase)
2nd Class medium parcel, up to 10kg: £8.75 to £9.50 (75p increase)
1st Class medium parcel, up to 20kg: £15.45 to £16.90 (£1.45 increase)
2nd Class medium parcel, up to 20kg: £13.15 to £14.20 (£1.05 increase)

Price changes for Signed For parcels:

1st Class Signed For small parcel, up to 2kg: £7.05 to £7.50 (45p increase)
2nd Class Signed For small parcel, up to 2kg: £5.85 to £6.30 (45p increase)
1st Class Signed For medium parcel, up to 2kg: £9.65 to £10.30 (65p increase)
2nd Class Signed For medium parcel, up to 2kg: £8.55 to £9.10 (55p increase)
1st Class Signed For medium parcel, up to 10kg: £11.65 to £12.50 (85p increase)
2nd Class Signed For medium parcel, up to 10kg: £10.35 to £11.10 (75p increase)
1st Class Signed For medium parcel, up to 20kg: £17.05 to £18.50 (£1.45 increase)
2nd Class Signed For medium parcel, up to 20kg: £14.75 to £15.80 (£1.05 increase)

Price changes for Tracked parcels:

Tracked 24 small parcel, up to 2kg: £5.70 to £6.05 (35p increase)
Tracked 48 small parcel, up to 2kg: £4.45 to £4.70 (25p increase)
Tracked 24 medium parcel, up to 2kg: £8.25 to £8.85 (60p increase)
Tracked 48 medium parcel, up to 2kg: £7.25 to £7.60 (35p increase)
Tracked 24 medium parcel, up to 10kg: £10.25 to £11.05 (80p increase)
Tracked 48 medium parcel, up to 10kg: £9.05 to £9.60 (55p increase)
Tracked 24 medium parcel, up to 20kg: £15.65 to £17.05 (£1.40 increase)
Tracked 48 medium parcel, up to 20kg: £13.65 to £14.30 (65p increase

[Valentina@1]

What’s the end game here?
This feels like self sabotage to me

Sad times

[postslippete]

Its parcels where RM faces fierce competition but perhaps it is also trying to improve its revenue/yield per item rather than simply chase volume?

It's interesting that they have put parcel prices up just before "peak" though

[funkflex55]

If it means a bit less volume then f***ing good. And yes I hope you're correct. It's not always being as s**t as possible for as cheap a possible. If we could provide great service at a reasonable price, that would be better.

[ted_e_bear]

If it means a bit less volume then f***ing good. And yes I hope you're correct. It's not always being as s**t as possible for as cheap a possible. If we could provide great service at a reasonable price, that would be better.

I hope so too perhaps it's finally sunk in that if you can make a bit more profit per item then you don't need to do as much work for the same amount of money, this is one of the few businesses where "pile it high and sell it cheap" absolutely doesn't work, think bulk mailings for example

[TopperGas]

Do commercial companies like ASOS etc pay similar prices or do they get big discounts?

[Mr Rush]

Do commercial companies like ASOS etc pay similar prices or do they get big discounts?

All of the big contracts are chasing discounts because they can shop around for carriage. If not under discount then with extras on top for the same price like catering to demand for features that have come to pass such as photo capture, PINs, doorstep ID, age verification, parcel lockers, drop-off points, etc.