Royal Mail raises stamp prices

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7334244.stm

The price of posting standard first and second class letters has risen.


A first class stamp for smaller items weighing up to 100 grammes now costs 36p, up 2p. The cost of a second class stamp has gone up from 24p to 27p.

Consumer watchdog Postwatch criticised the increases, announced in December, after Royal Mail's deliveries were hit by last year's industrial action.

Despite the rises, Royal Mail estimates it will still lose 6p on every stamped letter and parcel it delivers.

Last year, Royal Mail lost £178m on stamped mail.

It has also come under pressure from competitors in the more lucrative business mail market.

Losing business

Some large companies have switched their business to firms they consider to be either cheaper or more efficient than Royal Mail.

"For many years profits from business mail have funded stamped mail losses," Luisa Fulci, Royal Mail's director of commercial pricing and policy, said.



"But it's getting harder all the time to maintain that subsidy as competition for business mail from rivals, electronic communications and the wider communications market is increasing while mail volumes fall,â€

[Lounge Lizard]

As it's 27p and 36p there's no need now to buy separate '1st' and '2nd' stamps.
Just buy loads of 9p stamps and put three of them on your 2nd class letters and four of them on your 1st class letters - or just put three on anyway as anything other than a single '2nd' stamps gets automatically sorted as first class.

[k979aaa]

[quote="TrueBlueTerrier"]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7334244.stm

The price of posting standard first and second class letters has risen.


A first class stamp for smaller items weighing up to 100 grammes now costs 36p, up 2p. The cost of a second class stamp has gone up from 24p to 27p.

Consumer watchdog Postwatch criticised the increases, announced in December, after Royal Mail's deliveries were hit by last year's industrial action.

Despite the rises, Royal Mail estimates it will still lose 6p on every stamped letter and parcel it delivers.

Last year, Royal Mail lost £178m on stamped mail.

It has also come under pressure from competitors in the more lucrative business mail market.

Losing business

Some large companies have switched their business to firms they consider to be either cheaper or more efficient than Royal Mail.

"For many years profits from business mail have funded stamped mail losses," Luisa Fulci, Royal Mail's director of commercial pricing and policy, said.



"But it's getting harder all the time to maintain that subsidy as competition for business mail from rivals, electronic communications and the wider communications market is increasing while mail volumes fall,â€

[pinstripe]

The real price of competition = increased stamp prices !.

Well they didn't listen to us, we tried to warn them, even last year during the strikes, all the public cared about was getting their mail later and the cost of a stamp. Now RM has got its way, post offices are closing, the regulator has RM by the b*** and all Al & Adam do is squeak, and make more cuts.

An idiot could see the effect that competition would have. I remember years ago being told in WTL that our competitors would not be allowed to cherry-pick, did anyone actually believe that? It just goes to show that we were right all along.

Competition costs the public more, big business gets richer and what, 2.5 years after the market was opened we are still delivering ALL the mail.

The public have been conned and they must now pay more for a poorer service, so what if we have the cheapest stamp prices in Europe, give these big boys time, they'll soon sort that out!

[Darren Bent]

They should charge more for UPS not our customers. but Big business are our customer not auntie ethel

[heapsy]

It just looks like any other industry after liberalisation to me. Can't think of a single industry where prices have actually gone DOWN when compettition has been introduced.

[Thorby Bislam]

As a lot more people wont be aware of the price increases, ( and I wasn't until I just read it here this minute), there will be a lot more surcharges, with the £1 on top of the deficit. That should go some way to helping RM's losses.

[Stormproof]

Large letters(up to 100g) have gone up from 48p to 52p

[DGP1]

But consumer group Postwatch said Royal Mail should "make greater strides to improve efficiency rather than making its customers pick up the bill for management failure".

How long before they just blame us?

I could make efficiency savings immediately by getting rid of all the flotsam and jetsam (more commonly referred to a management)

[F0zziebear]

I was under the impression that under the pricing agreement with the regulator that RoyalMail had to increase prices by Retail Price index -1%, which is actually a fall in prices in real terms upto 2009. I haven't got access to the information but you should see the bucket of products RoyalMail offers and see if the prices of some are rising at considerably less than inflation.

It is not right to just see absolute price increases, as these ignore inflation.

I can't be more specific without seeing all the data, but that is my understanding.

The Whole RPI-1 is designed to ensure RoyalMail look at cutting their costs and becoming more efficient. This is the regulators aim along with liberalising the market.

Hope that provides some insight, or thoughts to chew over