Royal Mail Loses £200m
May 8, 2008
Days after a report revealed that deregulation of postal services had not provided significant benefits to consumers, Royal Mail has revealed annual losses of £200m. For the first time, the universal system for delivering letters and parcels (which allows senders to enjoy the same rates regardless of where they are in the country) was not profitable.
£800m was pumped into the Royal Mail’s pension pot but despite cost-savings from staff redundancies and 600 Post Office branch closures, the poor results have prompted Royal Mail chief executive, Adam Crozier, to call for greater freedom and deregulation. He said that Royal Mail now competes not just with other mail companies but also online companies. “We probably lost more direct marketing business to Google than to TNT” he said.
On the brightside for eBay buyers and sellers, Crozier reiterated the Royal Mail’s commitment to the universal service calling it “part of the fabric of our society and… vitally important to social cohesion and to the UK economy.”
Merseyside and Cheshire PO closures announced
January 22, 2008
The Post Office have announced the next round of branch closures, with the loss of 60 POs in Merseyside, the Wirral and Cheshire. Originally 65 branches had been slated for closure, but after six weeks of public consultation, three won a reprieve, and two are undergoing a further consultation process. In addition, six branches are to be replaced with “outreach” services: that is, Post Offices based in pubs or shops, or mobile services.
Post Offices bosses claim that the new plans mean that 99% of the population will still be within a mile of an alternative PO.
The full list of affected branches is available as a pdf.
Royal Mail announce 2008 pricing
December 20, 2007
Royal Mail have just announced their new prices for 2008/2009, which is not likely to be good news for anyone. First and second class letters go up to 36p and 27p respectively; Recorded Delivery will be 74p and Special Delivery will start from £4.60.
Perhaps more likely to affect eBay sellers are the Large Letter and Packet tariffs, which are both up: for the popular 100g-250g tranche, prices will increase to 78p and £1.45 respectively. On the heavier end of the scale, packets between 2kg and 4kg will now be £8.22, or £6.85 via Standard Parcels.
For those spending less than £15,000 on post annually, collections leap in price to £450 per annum, though they will remain free for those spending more than £15k. There are discounts for businesses with accounts on most of the RM tariff, so if you are sending more than the odd packet here and there, it’s certainly worth visiting the postal MOT centre and seeing where you could save.
The full tariff can be read in pdf format on Royal Mail’s website.
Recent Comments
- Whirly: #3 you don’t deserve one after having a 1p listing festival you jammy blighter.
- Chris Dawson: #1 I didn’t get a voucher either
If anyone has one and wants to spend it with me... - northumbrian: the only fault with that bling thing is if anything it makes the item look to good
- faculty-x: us techies are honoured at the mo from ebay or the ones that have dropped off ebay the most, us...
- faculty-x: bling looks excellent, must get a copy. been messing around with coral for years, should save ages. so...
- Whirly: No voucher for me which is a pain as I need some stuff I know a buyer who will get one, he likes...
- Whirly: #2 If you build the fee’s into your sale price I think it’s a justifiable expense, we regularly...
- Trish Connolly: I need to dissagree with part of your statement. You say, “I’ve met many buyers who are more...
- J R: if we sell something for £500 there is no way we would be willing to give ebay £50 plus Paypal fees, there...
- Whirly: lmao
