Fury at Royal Mail's fuel levy

[TrueBlueTerrier]

It'll cost a packet
Fury at Royal Mail’s fuel levy

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ne ... tomer.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

ROYAL MAIL is to hit hundreds of thousands of businesses across Britain with its first-ever FUEL SURCHARGE.

The 2.5 per cent levy will be added to EVERY item posted by a contract parcel customer from April 2.

This includes everyone from business giants to sellers on internet sites such as AMAZON or EBAY.

The move — first mooted in January — has sparked outrage in the business community.

One furious Amazon seller said: “This will affect hundreds of thousands of businesses. It’s a cynical way of increasing prices without being seen to do so in the eyes of the average customer.”

It comes as Chancellor George Osborne is tipped to shelve a planned increase in fuel duty on petrol at the pump to protect stretched Brits.

A price banding for parcels weighing less than 1kg is also being scrapped — meaning tiny parcels will cost far more to post.

Royal Mail last night insisted it was simply moving in line with other parcel operators who charge “six to nine per cent” to cover fuel costs.

But experts say consumers will ultimately bear the increase as companies will be forced to pass it on to households.

A Royal Mail spokesman refused to confirm either the amount the Government-owned service spends on petrol or how much this has gone up by.

He added the introduction of a surcharge gave Royal Mail “flexibility” to move prices even higher if petrol costs climb. He told The Sun: “A fuel surcharge is established practice in this industry.”

Business owners predicted an exodus from the organisation — run by Canadian Moya Greene.

Ruel Taylor, operations director of mobile phone accessories specialist MOBILE FUN, said: “This will impact disproportionately upon online retailers.

“It’s unfair that loyal customers and consumers should have to shoulder additional costs for the same services.”

[SP115]

The 10 mile runs in 3rd gear on 60mph roads @ ~5k revs to clear the filters every week doesn't help much

[north london driver]

this could mean the driving allowance is going up,
sorry i forgot the last agreement stopped driving allowance for new drivers.
atleast the old drivers will get there driving allowance put up by the pay deal that our union is getting for us.

[POSTMAN]

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


There has been some press coverage today on our plans to introduce a fuel surcharge for business contract parcel products from 2 April.

Fuel surcharging is established practice in the parcel delivery market. This will bring Royal Mail in line with other parcel delivery companies. The charge we will apply compares very favourably to fuel surcharges already applied by other UK parcel delivery companies. It will not apply to non-contract business and consumer parcel services.

The rate will be 2.5%. This is considerably lower than the current charges applied by other UK parcel carriers (February 2013) of 6 - 9%.

The price of fuel is a major element of parcel delivery costs. Our fuel costs are at a record high – up more than 40% in the last five years – and volatility in the price of fuel means that we need a more effective method of reflecting this in our price.

The specific business parcels services affected are: Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9am, Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1pm, Royal Mail Tracked 24, Royal Mail Tracked 48, Royal Mail 24, Royal Mail 48, Special Delivery Guaranteed Returns, Royal Mail Tracked Returns, and Mail Order Returns

[parcelboy]

maybe it might be to recover the extra expenditure on the shared vans "How many did they buy "was it 12500 cheaper to run than bikes obviously

[UnhappyGremlin]

From a business point of view, it does kind of make sense, but will the surcharge amount drop if petrol prices go down? (Although, I think it more likely petrol prices will, for the most part, continue the gradual rise to oblivion).

The only other issue is, will this result in a further loss of business? I think it will. So I have to ask, why do this now? At a time when mail volumes are down , why cause a further decline? The cynic in me says it's to drive closer and faster to privatisation. Sorry, 'outside investment'.

[hubbahubba]

From a business point of view, it does kind of make sense, but will the surcharge amount drop if petrol prices go down? (Although, I think it more likely petrol prices will, for the most part, continue the gradual rise to oblivion).

The only other issue is, will this result in a further loss of business? I think it will. So I have to ask, why do this now? At a time when mail volumes are down , why cause a further decline? The cynic in me says it's to drive closer and faster to privatisation. Sorry, 'outside investment'.

Dont see your logic there?
Who buys a business that makes changes that will actually LOSES them custom?

[motch]

The 10 mile runs in 3rd gear on 60mph roads @ ~5k revs to clear the filters every week doesn't help much

indeed, hardly worth getting out of 3rd gear, another 1mph and the limiter kicks in...

[TrueBlueTerrier]

From a business point of view, it does kind of make sense, but will the surcharge amount drop if petrol prices go down? (Although, I think it more likely petrol prices will, for the most part, continue the gradual rise to oblivion).

The only other issue is, will this result in a further loss of business? I think it will. So I have to ask, why do this now? At a time when mail volumes are down , why cause a further decline? The cynic in me says it's to drive closer and faster to privatisation. Sorry, 'outside investment'.

Dont see your logic there?
Who buys a business that makes changes that will actually LOSES them custom?

someone who wants to buy it cheap and sell it high.

someone who wants to get as many shares as possible and then perform a miraculous turn around.

Asset strippers, hedge funds etc

[cyclemech1]

Ah, thats why RM are messing about with the price of small/medium packets/parcels from 2nd April.

I suppose when they've lost a lot of business they can say 'packets/parcels are down, therefore we need less staff' and then after privatisation they can reduce the price again and put it down to 'the rigours of competition'.

Still, at least the CWU will believe them (via the saintly Moya, of course).

I've never known a union before to be so far up the bosses a**e, it's pathetic.

[UnhappyGremlin]

From a business point of view, it does kind of make sense, but will the surcharge amount drop if petrol prices go down? (Although, I think it more likely petrol prices will, for the most part, continue the gradual rise to oblivion).

The only other issue is, will this result in a further loss of business? I think it will. So I have to ask, why do this now? At a time when mail volumes are down , why cause a further decline? The cynic in me says it's to drive closer and faster to privatisation. Sorry, 'outside investment'.

Dont see your logic there?
Who buys a business that makes changes that will actually LOSES them custom?

As TBT says, makes it easier to buy it cheap (and force through a sale), 'turn it round' in record time, and sell on for a huge profit.

[freemail]

https://www.myroyalmail.com/news/nation ... urcharging

The charge we will apply compares very favourably to fuel surcharges already applied by other UK parcel delivery companies. It will not apply to non-contract business and consumer parcel services.

The rate will be 2.5%. This is considerably lower than the current charges applied by other UK parcel carriers (February 2013) of 6 - 9%.

Have rarely read such a load of bo**ocks. This is either an incredibly cynical attempt at disinformation, which is extremely insulting to your customers, or it was written by somebody who doesn't understand how fuel surcharges work. As anybody ought to know, you haven't kept your surcharge lower than other companies because you have only just introduced a fuel surcharge. When other couriers introduced fuel surcharges their surcharges were also low because it was covering a relatively small increase in fuel costs. Surcharges have increased over the years as fuel prices have risen. The Royal Mail has introduced a fuel surcharge at a time when fuel prices were falling. So your surcharge is actually far more extreme than couriers' surcharges as theirs go up as fuel prices increase. Royal Mail has introduced a fuel surcharge that rather than covering rising prices is a price hike at a time of falling prices.

AA website, April 2013: "Pump prices have dropped substantially following a fall in the price of oil and the wholesale price of petrol and diesel."

[TrueBlueTerrier]

It's not "our" fuel surcharge - its theirs - this is an independent site so please take that into account when replying to posted News Stories. We have non Royal Mail members on here as well.

Further just because we post Royal Mail news releases we don't necessarily agree with them, or even support them. We post them to provide information to members of RMC, after all we also post Daily Mail, Sun, and Telegraph stories, and even political party literature. The only proviso I have for when I do post stories is that they are about Royal Mail, the CWU, our competitors or that members may find interesting.

[freemail]

It's not "our" fuel surcharge - its theirs - this is an independent site so please take that into account when replying to posted News Stories. We have non Royal Mail members on here as well.

Further just because we post Royal Mail news releases we don't necessarily agree with them, or even support them. We post them to provide information to members of RMC, after all we also post Daily Mail, Sun, and Telegraph stories, and even political party literature. The only proviso I have for when I do post stories is that they are about Royal Mail, the CWU, our competitors or that members may find interesting.

Apologies, not easy to see that when it says "Message board for all Royal Mail employees and customers" and most of it seems to be employee-focused. The point remains. How can Royal Mail introduce a fuel surcharge at a time when fuel prices are falling, and how can they compare their newly introduced surcharge with ones that have risen steadily over quite a few years. It should be obvious to anybody but a blithering idiot that the two aren't comparable. If a company had been running a fuel surcharge for 20 years that had risen incrementally to 75% presumably Royal Mail would have looked at that as a justification for them starting with a 25% fuel surcharge.

[borders]

we are witnessing the end of a once great subsidised public service.