Postcomm reviews Royal Mail application

Postcomm, the independent regulator for postal services, is seeking views on Royal mail’s application to extend its Pricing in Proportion (PiP) framework to Packetpost Returns.

Packetpost Returns is a service that allows packets to be returned from customers with the postage cost being borne by the original sender.

Currently the price per item paid by the original sender is based on the average weight of the mail returned. Royal Mail advised Postcomm that Packetpost Returns was overlooked when it made its original PiP application in August 2003, and proposes that an item returned through this service should be treated and charged as a packet under its Pricing in Proportion framework.

Royal Mail has also requested that Packetpost Returns, consistent with the greater alignment of these prices to those of normal Packetpost, should be included in the same controlled services group as Packetpost1 .

In order to fully inform its final decision, Postcomm seeks views from all interested parties on Royal Mail’s proposals.

Notes for editors

Pricing in Proportion (PiP) was introduced for most UK mail services up to 1 Kg on 21 August 2006. As a result of PiP, Royal Mail’s charges for postal items were moved from a system based primarily on the weight of items to one based on both the format and weight of items.

Responses to this consultation letter (pdf, 69KB) should be sent no later than 21 May 2007 either by email to [email protected] or by post to Samanta Padalino, Deputy Director, Competition & Regulation, Postcomm, Hercules House, 6 Hercules Road, London SE1 7DB.

1 Packetpost 1st and 2nd Class are included in Controlled Services 31 and 32, but Packetpost Returns is included within Controlled Services 10 and 11 (Response Services 1st and 2nd Class).