Royal Mail OBA vs Franking - Anyone have experience with either?

[lego]

Long story short, I'm currently sending out on average 100 items a week. This is split between small parcel (poster tubes) 40%, Large letter 30%, standard letter 20%, with the remaining 10% a mix of international and some medium parcel. All sent 2nd class (low value items)

It's getting to the stage where the time I'm spending in the Post office each day is a big drain on my sanity.

I'm looking to use a service where I can drop off, a couple of sacks each day. I believe this gives me two options, OBA through Royal Mail, or Franking.

I was just hoping to get some opinions and experiences some of you may of had here and the pro and cons of each.

I'm aware of the "hidden costs" of franking (ink / labels ect) plus the maintenance side of things. Just wondered if there was anything else to look out for.

Hope this make sense

Thanks in advance

 

[TonTom]

Can you not buy pre paid labels in bulk just stick them on then drop the sacks off and pick up receipts the next day. I’m sure I’ve seen someone in my local post office do this with eBay pre paid labels.

 

[Vanquish-Storm]

Are you a business?

Use click and drop either way and contact Royal Mail and get an account manager and get better rates if you are a business.

 

[BongoHunter]

The RM online self service stuff might save you a boat load of time and be worth a look

 

[flipface]

I use OBA , works great. You just need to buy an ink pad. Royal Mail supplied the First and Second Class imprint stampers.

 

[Steeps]

You've got 2 options really which will work best, Click+drop using pre-pay or Click+drop using OBA

Click+drop with pre-pay is easy to use, just sign up online and you can post out using standard pricing by printing off barcoded address labels either on 4"x6" labels or 4x labels on an a4 sheet. All you need to do is type in name/postcode, select address, select appropriate RM postage method from the list and print the labels off in a batch. If it's from Amazon/Ebay/Ecommerce you can import the orders directly into click+drop. Take the pre-paid parcels to the post office and hand them over, get a receipt for the signed for parcels and walk away.

You can use the same system with OBA and click+drop, if you're VAT registered it's cheaper and you're billed monthly. Downside with OBA is you have to bag each type of post in each sack, so LL in one, letter in another, parcel in another and international in a 4th, so you're carrying 4x 22kg sacks with only a handful in each one to the post office.

Have a look at click and drop pay as you go first and see how you get on with it, then look at going OBA with click and drop.

To do it properly I would invest in a 4x6 thermal printer and buy rolls of 4x6 labels (cheaper long run than a4 sheet feeds), when you go OBA they provide the labels.

No messing about with ink pads/franking, it's all barcode and scanned in at post office.

If you need more information using this method I can provide some screenshots/costs/links to resources which will help.

 

[Ironic Namesake]

Click and drop is what we use, with OBA.

But beware if your local PO is a franchise, they can be difficult in accepting your bags as they don’t earn anything from it. Even though their contract with RM stipulates this

The larger / main POs are no problem.

 

[lego]

You've got 2 options really which will work best, Click+drop using pre-pay or Click+drop using OBA

Click+drop with pre-pay is easy to use, just sign up online and you can post out using standard pricing by printing off barcoded address labels either on 4"x6" labels or 4x labels on an a4 sheet. All you need to do is type in name/postcode, select address, select appropriate RM postage method from the list and print the labels off in a batch. If it's from Amazon/Ebay/Ecommerce you can import the orders directly into click+drop. Take the pre-paid parcels to the post office and hand them over, get a receipt for the signed for parcels and walk away.

You can use the same system with OBA and click+drop, if you're VAT registered it's cheaper and you're billed monthly. Downside with OBA is you have to bag each type of post in each sack, so LL in one, letter in another, parcel in another and international in a 4th, so you're carrying 4x 22kg sacks with only a handful in each one to the post office.

Have a look at click and drop pay as you go first and see how you get on with it, then look at going OBA with click and drop.

To do it properly I would invest in a 4x6 thermal printer and buy rolls of 4x6 labels (cheaper long run than a4 sheet feeds), when you go OBA they provide the labels.

No messing about with ink pads/franking, it's all barcode and scanned in at post office.

If you need more information using this method I can provide some screenshots/costs/links to resources which will help.

Thanks Steeps,

I'm interested in OBA, I was sent some information through after a quick chat with someone from Royal mail, would like to see how the prices / discounts offered match up with the real world.

Click and drop is what we use, with OBA.

But beware if your local PO is a franchise, they can be difficult in accepting your bags as they don’t earn anything from it. Even though their contract with RM stipulates this

The larger / main POs are no problem.

We do use a small postal counter (within a shop) up the road, but it's getting to the stage some day where we are causing them issues. (There is quite often one member of staff for both the shop and the post office). You try and do what you can by letting people go before you ect, but that can lead to me being there for 35-45 mins posting 15 parcels. We have a good relationship with them so I think they'll understand.

 

[Steeps]

Thanks Steeps,

I'm interested in OBA, I was sent some information through after a quick chat with someone from Royal mail, would like to see how the prices / discounts offered match up with the real world.



We do use a small postal counter (within a shop) up the road, but it's getting to the stage some day where we are causing them issues. (There is quite often one member of staff for both the shop and the post office). You try and do what you can by letting people go before you ect, but that can lead to me being there for 35-45 mins posting 15 parcels. We have a good relationship with them so I think they'll understand.

We have the same issue at ours, especially when the last bank in town closed down and the cash machine was stolen there's a lot of people queueing for basic fiance, then in the evening there's the local companies all with 15-20 parcels which all need weighing to be priced up. Even using pre-pay I could go up to the counter, scan all the parcels and be done within a couple of minutes. OBA is a bit more complicated because there's manifest paperwork to deal with and the smaller franchises don't use it enough to know what they are doing with the paperwork. We've just moved from pre-pay to OBA as we're moving 40 parcels a week and could justify going down that route, some days I still use pre-pay as it's pointless taking a manifested bag down for 3 parcels.

Pricing online can be found here, but you usually get an agreed pricing structure with your RM account manager when signing up to know what your parcel prices will be: https://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/royal-mail-business-price-guide-25-march-2019_1.pdf

As ours are low value and typically under 100g including the fuel surcharge our parcels are only £2.35 using RM48, pre-pay it used to be £2.90 on 2nd class. You get free proof of delivery but no insurance.

 

[neil_g]

Click and drop is what we use, with OBA.

But beware if your local PO is a franchise, they can be difficult in accepting your bags as they don’t earn anything from it. Even though their contract with RM stipulates this

The larger / main POs are no problem.

I've had bother with click and drop where the po (multiple branches) can't scan the bar code as it comes up with invalid label. So have to take it to the sorting office.

 

[Steeps]

I've had bother with click and drop where the po (multiple branches) can't scan the bar code as it comes up with invalid label. So have to take it to the sorting office.

Barcode doesn't work, but if they type in the order reference next to the barcode manually they can accept it

Same with Special Delivery items, if they just scan them in to accept them they don't need to be bagged.

 

[neil_g]

Barcode doesn't work, but if they type in the order reference next to the barcode manually they can accept it

Same with Special Delivery items, if they just scan them in to accept them they don't need to be bagged.

They tried that too. Sorting office had no issue scanning.. Weird but ultimately time wasting.

 

[sanaxe1]

I send around 100 packages a day and I use Royal mail click and drop. It connects to eBay and my website and syncs all of the orders automatically.

 

[ahar]

But beware if your local PO is a franchise, they can be difficult in accepting your bags as they don’t earn anything from it. Even though their contract with RM stipulates this

The larger / main POs are no problem.

They do earn a fee, but it is very small.

Also, almost all post offices are franchises - out of the 11,500 post offices, only a couple of hundred (so called crown branches) are directly owned.

Handling lots of mail items is difficult for smaller post offices (the 'local' model as it's called) as they have fewer staff (usually shared with the rest of the shop as people have mentioned above) and not as much room out the back. Larger post offices (the 'main' model) are better setset for handling parcels at volume .

 

[lego]

One more question regarding printing labels, we currently use Amazon / eBay / and our eCommerce store. We print our invoice / shipping form direct from Amazon onto A4 sheets with label tabs for the address at the top and simply peel them off. I'm guessing a second label would need to be printed for the postage? Or is there an all in one solution?

 

[Steeps]

We bought a rollo/zing 4x6 thermal printer for about £150, can take any sheetfeed/roll and doesn't need to be brand specific. Lots of sellers selling off their free royal mail rolls so getting labels is cheap. If you go through OBA instead of pre-pay you will be provided with labels.

Bulk of our sales are Amazon but I have ebay linked to it too, postage is automatically imported, calculated and priced in Click+Drop so all I need to do is print the batch off on 4x6 labels. The sticker has the full name/address, postage method and barcodes included. Currently I just use the default amazon/ebay packing slips to include in the order (standard a4, don't need peel label) but slowly moving on to another system which creates custom sales receipts.

 

[jimjamuk]

Register for OBA and get a load of discounts through the amout you are sending. Then sign up to click and drop and wonder at it all (once setting it up) automating the lot for you. Just print the labels and parcel up. Then work out if you would spend 15k on postage and as for a free collection if you do. Made life a lot easier

Process is now

Log in print labels - package up item and attach label - put into grey sack - at the end of the day do a manifest of the items being sent out - if you are lucky with a late collection just wait for them to knock and hand it all over

 

[jimjamuk]

Thanks Steeps,

I'm interested in OBA, I was sent some information through after a quick chat with someone from Royal mail, would like to see how the prices / discounts offered match up with the real world.

One great feature is that instead of having weight tiers for each parcel its a one off price for anything up to 2kg for us using OBA. Might be useful if you sent out both big and small packages. It makes our life easier as we can just charge a flat fee for shipping unless its a big item

 

[Steeps]

There's still weight tiers but they are much broader and you are charged an average. Fortunately most of my items are around 50-60g to post so if the odd 200g parcel goes out the average is dropped and it goes on the cheaper rate. Even if the average goes up it's still cheaper than pre-pay.

What I find annoying is today I have 4 parcels (just over an inch thick so is a parcel), 4 large letters and 1 special, only half fills a supermarket carrier bag but instead I'm supposed to take this in 3 22kg postage sacks to the post office.

 

[Puzzled]

The joys of shipping, always take longer than you think.

I currently just use click and drop and send everything 2nd class small parcel (products generally between 600g and 2kg) so £2.90 each time. Not doing enough at the minute to use OBA but would be interested to hear what price I'd pay if I did.