Royal Mail, new size guide

cleanbluesky · 21 Aug 2006 at 12:10

Just thought I'd start a thread to vent at Royal Mail's decision to start charging significantly more for the same service.

I expect this is going to make eBay more complex, and expensive

Efour · 21 Aug 2006 at 12:17

Yeah its really complicated.....

As with all new things it will take a few idiots a few extra months to learn how big something is.

kitten_caboodle · 21 Aug 2006 at 12:18

they can't even make their current service work properly (specifically parcelforce), so lord knows what the hell the extra money is going to go towards.

Tru · 21 Aug 2006 at 12:19

I have a few good posty mates and they all say that ebay has increased their workload by such an amount that sometimes they don't get finished until after 3pm.

PaulStat · 21 Aug 2006 at 12:19

not really, you get three standard sizes letter, large letter and packet.

letter and large letter will of course have weight brackets but it's not too hard to figure out.

Spacky · 21 Aug 2006 at 12:20

So when sending a round package say some cheese or a round thing, do I have to measure it via Pi or class it as a square package due to the gappage?

cleanbluesky · 21 Aug 2006 at 12:20

Tru said:
I have a few good posty mates and they all say that ebay has increased their workload by such an amount that sometimes they don't get finished until after 3pm.

Royal Mail should be kissing eBay's hairy beanbags then...

jas72 · 21 Aug 2006 at 12:21

the point is it will hit smaller retailers much harder. Your local PC shop who is already struggling to cope with postal charges will find it more difficult to ship items compared to giants like Amazon who can negociate nice flat rates with shipping companies.

Don't know about UK but here in Europe online shops have started opening small depots where people can collect items to save on shipping. Anyone heard from OC how it will affect their shipping?

before hand Dvds games and such could use a couple of 1st class stamps now it's per weight which means a trip to the post office.

andi · 21 Aug 2006 at 12:22

TBH, its not totally unexpected, and probably about time really, it must have been costing them a fortune to ship huge boxes for £2.80 just because they were light. Still take up as room in a van, no matter what the weight.

Tru · 21 Aug 2006 at 12:22

cleanbluesky said:
Royal Mail should be kissing eBay's hairy beanbags then...

Could it be the sudden proliferation of parcels that has caused their costs to increase? A van full of packages must cost a lot more to deliver than a bag of letters.

Raymond Lin · 21 Aug 2006 at 12:27

Tru said:
Could it be the sudden proliferation of parcels that has caused their costs to increase? A van full of packages must cost a lot more to deliver than a bag of letters.

The bloom of internet shopping have finally caught up with them.

Redman · 21 Aug 2006 at 12:29

I would have expected the price of a 'normal' letter to be reduced though, surely the old system was a catch all with the price of a 1st class stamp pulling in the slack.

Of course, when these things are introduced, nothing is ever reduced in price, only increased....

Mr.Orb · 21 Aug 2006 at 12:30

Still if someone gave you 32p and said take this letter to the other side of the country you would tell them where to stick it.

Longbow · 21 Aug 2006 at 12:33

Whats all the fuss about?

Most of the prices are going down, it's only the larger parcels which get the price rise, and rightly so.

SiD the Turtle · 21 Aug 2006 at 12:33

Mr.Orb said:
Still if someone gave you 32p and said take this letter to the other side of the country you would tell them where to stick it.

But if I gave you a thousand letters which would fit in the same van?*

*I have no idea how many letters you can fit in a van

Tru · 21 Aug 2006 at 12:34

Mr.Orb said:
Still if someone gave you 32p and said take this letter to the other side of the country you would tell them where to stick it.

Yes but I don't have a national network of vehicles and buildings whose sole purpose is to move mail around the country.

cleanbluesky · 21 Aug 2006 at 12:35

Tru said:
Could it be the sudden proliferation of parcels that has caused their costs to increase? A van full of packages must cost a lot more to deliver than a bag of letters.

Surely it would work in the opposite manner... economy of scale?

I'd rather the hypothesis that Royal Mail decided that if they make people think that 'bigger = more expensive' then they could charge more for bigger parcels rather than for weight alone...

I think its just Public Transport system like when Ken bumped prices

KaHn · 21 Aug 2006 at 12:35

cleanbluesky said:
Royal Mail should be kissing eBay's hairy beanbags then...

Technically yes, but they demand at which ebay took off was so great no one could predict that the shock to the postal system would be so great.

In another few years when they have increased their capacity they might start to thank ebay but atm its the poor sod with the post bag full of other peoples ebay crap who is suffering.

KaHn

PaulStat · 21 Aug 2006 at 12:39

SiD the Turtle said:
But if I gave you a thousand letters which would fit in the same van?*

*I have no idea how many letters you can fit in a van

Well there's 25 letters in a bundle each with a average weight of maybe 20grams. 11kg in a bag, so that's 550 letters per bag.

Next question is how many bags can you fit in a van

kitten_caboodle · 21 Aug 2006 at 12:40

Mr.Orb said:
Still if someone gave you 32p and said take this letter to the other side of the country you would tell them where to stick it.

unlike royal mail, who tend to take your money and then lose the letter/parcel anyway and then deny all knowledge