Increased Postage prices

[IloveMYredTROLLEY!]

Or what if the parcel price hike is a short term strategy to make current delivery methods revision walks look achieveable with far less overtime, as senders will use other companies and will show their weaknesses in the process, making the RM look more attractive for privitisation?

[simjan]

I work on counters and yes people are walking away from the price rises. I also did a parcel to a bfpo the other day and it would have been cheaper to send it airmail to the country they where in. so confusing for customers plus on some larger items if quite light it is cheaper to send around the world than uk. crazy!

[Budfrog]

Or what if the parcel price hike is a short term strategy to make current delivery methods revision walks look achieveable with far less overtime, as senders will use other companies and will show their weaknesses in the process, making the RM look more attractive for privitisation?

Not when you are scrapping for market share and want to be known as a parcels business. It's a suicidal strategy if true... madness!

[fishtank]

Or what if the parcel price hike is a short term strategy to make current delivery methods revision walks look achieveable with far less overtime, as senders will use other companies and will show their weaknesses in the process, making the RM look more attractive for privitisation?

Not when you are scrapping for market share and want to be known as a parcels business. It's a suicidal strategy if true... madness!

I agree,it's a conspiracy theory that would only make sense if you could 100% guarantee that you could recover your market share and in the parcels game that's a non-starter.
Putting off customers just puts more product out there for competitors to take which just encourages more investment by the competition which in the end will kill you.
To me it just seems to be another grade A cock up driven by market naivety.
Possibly the plasterboarder's idea.

[hubbahubba]

To give RM any credit for using this as some sort of short term tactic would be way off the mark going on past ideas (Consignia,buying eastern euro postal groups for millions only to sell on for a nominal fee,etc etc).
Far more likely a simple price hike for the sake of future shareholder profits,which has,in typical RM fashion exploded in their faces.

They will never learn...

[Izzy]

I have noticed that more parcels recently are DSA. I assume RM top bods WANT to loose sales to DSA companies, on the basis that we will do the final mile. This allows them to slash collections/hubs etc.

[barrowc]

They are looking at changing the rules on DSA parcels too - see http://www.royalmailwholesale.com/files ... Jan132.pdf

Services

We wish to offer parcels services on bespoke contracts to better reflect our costs according to volume, volumetrics, weight, fall to earth and sortation. Bespoke prices are more commonplace in the bulk parcels market. Until we have finalised the costs for the bespoke prices, we will continue to offer parcel services for items up to 2kg in a separate parcels contract.

We have decided to cease offering 2 – 5Kg parcels services from the end of July 2013. The parcels market for these heavier items is very competitive and we have received very little volume in the time that it has been available.

[Budfrog]

In a lot of cases it will not be a case of losing traffic volume to competitors but traffic being lost from the industry as a whole.

Many people who use eBay to sell relatively low value items will no longer bother as when increased postage is added to the 'double dip' of eBay and Paypal fees it will not be worth the trouble. A good thing for the local charity shops and car boot sales.

http://goo.gl/TveA8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

RM senior management would happily see the same or increased profits from less traffic, less equipment, real estate and workers to worry about.

[POSTMAN]

https://www.myroyalmail.com/news/2013/0 ... businesses" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[anTi]

Just posted something nearly shoe box size.

1.7kg domestic 1st class recorded. £10

£10!

God help us!

[Godric]

In a lot of cases it will not be a case of losing traffic volume to competitors but traffic being lost from the industry as a whole.

Many people who use eBay to sell relatively low value items will no longer bother as when increased postage is added to the 'double dip' of eBay and Paypal fees it will not be worth the trouble. A good thing for the local charity shops and car boot sales.

http://goo.gl/TveA8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

RM senior management would happily see the same or increased profits from less traffic, less equipment, real estate and workers to worry about.

that is not a business plan that's a suicide plan

[Brain Fury]

Perhaps they are pricing to reflect actual costs and to achieve growth in the parcel sectors that generate the most revenue / profit? Perhaps they think there's no point in offering low prices for say large parcels if we lose money on them when we could be using the network to accommodate the growth in smaller parcels. Perhaps they have looked at the market and competitors prices and think that customers will be prepared to pay more than the lowest available price to get a better service?

[Budfrog]

Perhaps they are pricing to reflect actual costs and to achieve growth in the parcel sectors that generate the most revenue / profit? Perhaps they think there's no point in offering low prices for say large parcels if we lose money on them when we could be using the network to accommodate the growth in smaller parcels. Perhaps they have looked at the market and competitors prices and think that customers will be prepared to pay more than the lowest available price to get a better service?

More and more eBayers and small businesses are using the price comparison site http://www.parcel2go.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; and it seems that although Parcelforce appears in search results Royal Mail does not. People can point the finger at the bottom feeders who are cheap and quote QofS but even Hermes offers full track and trace and a decent level of compensation.

[fishtank]

Perhaps they have looked at the market and competitors prices and think that customers will be prepared to pay more than the lowest available price to get a better service?

Goldilocks pricing in a long recession/stagnation is a dangerous strategy.
Protecting market share is a more sensible idea.
If you want to test out brand loyalty and quality over price you do it small scale,you don't bet the company's entire future on one roll of the dice.

[Budfrog]

Perhaps they have looked at the market and competitors prices and think that customers will be prepared to pay more than the lowest available price to get a better service?

Goldilocks pricing in a long recession/stagnation is a dangerous strategy.
Protecting market share is a more sensible idea.
If you want to test out brand loyalty and quality over price you do it small scale,you don't bet the company's entire future on one roll of the dice.

Cross subsidising one stream with another breaches competition laws and this has a bearing on RM's pricing strategy.