Consignia now angers international clients (Letter)

A large percentage of the international mailing community is not happy with Consignia, and with good reason.

January 2 saw increases of up to 30 per cent in their overseas postal rates, coupled with a slashing of discounts for sorted mail. This makes a mockery of Consignia’s Wholesalers’ Agreement, with its approved international postal consolidators, and it smacks of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

It is no secret that Royal Mail’s UK business is losing millions. Postcomm does not regulate international mail, so clearly the temptation to increase overseas rates, in order to recoup some of these losses, has proved too great to resist.

Does Consignia hope our clients will turn to them when we are no longer able to pass on previously merited discounts? If so, they will be rewarded with a cumbersome own goal. The system of appointed ‘Duet’ approved international consolidators was based on the fact that we do all the pre-sorting and bagging of mail, in order to earn the agreed discounts.

This can be complex and time consuming. The US alone has nine different sortation zones, all of which have sub sectors that need cross- referencing to ensure volume mailings are sorted and bagged accurately. The discounts allotted in recognition of this workload are now being withheld, on the grounds that it costs Consignia more to process sorted work than unsorted. How can it?

At the same time, the international postal rates for unsorted mail have remained unchanged. Therefore, in some instances, it can cost more to send sorted than unsorted mail.

For example, an item from a consignment of sorted mail going to Germany that weighs 60g costs me, as a consolidator, 72p to mail. Meanwhile, a member of the public will only pay 50p to send the item as unsorted mail.

Can Consignia afford to upset its consolidators in this way? I think not.

Already, members of the Consolidators’ Association report that they have taken 30 per cent of their business away in less than one month.

There are a number of overseas Post Offices eager to increase their share of the international mail delivery market, so it seems stupid to alienate those of us who handle large volumes of international mail for our clients on a regular basis.

If market forces prevail, Consignia’s international division could soon face as much difficulty as its domestic business.