Royal
Mail is changing the way that mailing is priced
From
21st August 2006, the way postage is priced will change to take
into account size as well as weight. Mail will fit into one of three
categories: letter, large letter and packet.
What
is Pricing in Proportion? Pricing
in Porportion is a new pricing system that takes into account both
the weight and the size of the item you are posting. This is because
size is a key factor in the cost of handling and delivering your
mail.
How
it works There will be three sizes for ordinary mail:
Letters
- most small and medium envelope up to half the size of A4
Large
letters - most larger envelopes up to A4 size
Packets
- anything else
Mostly,
you will be able to tell which category your mail is in by the size
of the envelope, but you will also need to consider its thickness
and weight.
Among
the services affected: First and second class, Mailsort and Flatsort
1400, Walksort and Presstream.
The good news
for you is that 70% of business mail will remain unaffected by the
move, and of the remaining 30%, about half of the prices will actually
reduce.
The new letter
category has a more generous weight allowance than traditional Mailsort
3 1400 for example. So if you’ve got more to say, you’ll
be able to add extra pages or items to make your mail stand out.
For example, in the smallest category, letter, the maximum weight
has been raised from 60g to 100g.
Where prices
are set to rise, increased costs can be avoided by subtle changes
in size. Polestar can advise on these changes.
Mailsort
- Size Criteria
Example
Calculations
*These
prices are still indicative at time of webpage upload, the final
prices will be confirmed by Royal mail in March 2006
For example,
to send 100,000 A4 catalogues weighing less than 60g, the price
will increase from 15p to 17.8p per item, a 19% increase. However,
an equivalent catalogue weighing 150g will decrease from 31.4p to
22.6p per item, a saving of £8,640.
Please note, you will need Adobe Acrobat
Reader to read the above files. This is a free download, and
is available
here:
Next
Steps Explore
alternatives for your catalogue or brochure such as:
Reducing
the size of your catalogue. Polestar has short cut-off presses
which will allow you to reduce the size of your catalogue without
wasting paper
Increasing
the number of pages in your catalogue – remember you are
no longer restricted to 60g.
Contact
your Polestar representative or call 01908
206 800
