Changes to airmail letter rates
Royal Mail is advising customers that new prices for international postcards, letters, small packets and printed papers to destinations outside Europe come into effect on July 4th 2002.
The overall increase in prices is 4.8 which is within the Retail Price Index limits allowable under the terms of the operating licence issued to Consignia, Royal Mail’s holding company, by Postcomm.
The effect on prices for the most popular services to destinations outside Europe are:
* the Airmail postcard rate rises from 40p to 42p (5%)
* a 20 gram Airmail letter rises from 65p to 68p (4.6%)
* a 100 gram Airmail Zone 1 small packet rises from #1.15 to #1.20 (4.4%). The increases to prices for these services are the first for destinations outside Europe since April 2000.
Prices for services to Europe remain unchanged, as do fees for the International Recorded, International Registered and Swiftair services. Prices for Royal Mail’s international contract services for business to all destinations also remain unchanged.
Trevor Sayer, Royal Mail’s international general manager, said: “We work very hard to minimise the impact that increases in our cost base have on our prices. For example, where local conditions allow we will use our own network or private postal companies for delivery overseas. From time to time however, prices increases are unavoidable.
“We still offer one of the best value postal services in Europe. We are very much aware of competition both from other postal companies and from other forms of media and we are constantly working to introduce new products and services for our customers. Our #150 million investment in a new state-of-the-art international mail distribution centre in Langley, near Heathrow, is evidence of our commitment to customer service.
“This facility, the Heathrow World-wide Distribution Centre, will become operational later this year and will be the most technologically advanced mail processing centre in the world. It will give us direct control over a greater proportion of our cost base, speed up delivery and enable us to develop products which are easier for our customers to use.”
