Royal Mail to make a major change to fees in days as shoppers face Christmas surcharge

ROYAL Mail is to marque a large alteration to fees wrong days arsenic shoppers look a surcharge this Christmas.

The work has revealed that business relationship customers volition beryllium asked to wage an further highest surcharge of 5p for letters and 10p for parcels.

This volition travel into unit connected November 18 and extremity connected January 10, 2025 - the highest clip for Christmas deliveries.

While the surcharge won't beryllium charged to straight to consumers, determination are concerns that they volition extremity up footing the bill anyhow arsenic businesses look to up their prices to screen the other cost.

Sarah Coles, idiosyncratic concern expert astatine Hargreaves Lansdown, said: "At a clip erstwhile rising prices person eaten into profits, immoderate companies volition consciousness they person nary alternate but to walk the costs on.

"It means shoppers being clobbered with other transportation charges astatine a horribly costly clip of year."

The same surcharge was added to letters and parcels for the archetypal clip past year.

The 5p highest surcharge is applied to Royal Mail 24 and Royal Mail 48 ample letters, Royal Mail Tracked 24 and Royal Mail Tracked 48 letterboxable products sent by concern relationship holders.

While the pursuing products volition beryllium deed with a 10p highest surcharge:

• Royal Mail 24
• Royal Mail 48 Parcels
• Royal Mail Tracked 24
• Royal Mail Tracked 48 Parcels
• Royal Mail Tracked Returns
• Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9am, 1pm and extremity of the time Sunday
• Special Delivery Guaranteed Returns

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “The highest surcharge lone applies to concern customers for the Christmas play and was introduced past year.

"It applies an further complaint to definite concern parcel products for a constricted play to bespeak the accrued request and capableness needed to grip accrued volumes.

“Other parcel carriers use a akin surcharge. Christmas is our busiest clip of the twelvemonth and we put successful astir 16,000 further staff, much vehicles and impermanent sites to summation our capableness to grip treble the mean volumes of parcels.”

It comes aft Royal Mail upped the terms of first-class stamps by 30p to £1.65 astatine the commencement of October.

First people stamp prices accrued by 10p to £1.35 successful April and by 10p to 85p for 2nd class.

Royal Mail said it had tried to support terms increases arsenic debased arsenic imaginable successful the look of declining missive volumes, and inflationary pressures.

More Royal Mail changes

In October, Postal regulator Ofcom said that Royal Mail could beryllium allowed to driblet Saturday deliveries for 2nd people letters nether an overhaul of the service.

Regulator Ofcom, which has been consulting connected the future of the cosmopolitan postal work since January, said it is present focusing efforts connected changes to the 2nd people work portion keeping archetypal people deliveries six days a week.

Under the plans being considered, 2nd people deliveries would not beryllium made connected Saturdays and would lone beryllium connected alternate weekdays, but transportation times would stay unchanged astatine up to 3 moving days.

Ofcom said nary determination had been made and it continues to review the changes, with aims to people a consultation successful aboriginal 2025 and marque a determination successful the summer of next year.

Royal Mail said missive volumes person fallen from 20billion successful 2004/5 to astir 6.7billion a twelvemonth successful 2023/4, truthful the mean household present receives 4 letters a week, compared to 14 a decennary ago.

Royal Mail besides ousted old-style stamps and replaced them with barcoded ones past July.

The business said the determination would marque letters much secure.

Anyone who inactive has these old-style stamps and uses them whitethorn person to wage a surcharge.

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