Industry angry at UK Royal Mail plan to charge by size
The biggest shake-up in sending post since the creation of the Penny Black stamp in 1840 is being proposed by Royal Mail, which plans to charge for letters by their size rather than their weight.
The move has angered industries such as direct-mail operators and card and envelope manufacturers, which say the shift will be costly, destroy business and be hard for consumers to understand.
Royal Mail has put the plan to Postcomm, the industry regulator, which must give approval before it can be implemented. It says it needs to standardise sizes so that more post can be handled by machines. A spokesman said: “It is something that we do intend to do as part of the more commercial approach that we are taking. Our heritage is great but we have got to look to the future.”
The scheme is being pushed by Elmar Toime, Royal Mail’s deputy chairman, after he introduced a similar system in his native New Zealand.
Some types of mail may face cost rises of up to 300 per cent, although Royal Mail says that the exercise will be revenue neutral because some post will cost less than it does at present under weight categories. The regulator would not approve the plan unless it seemed revenue neutral because Royal Mail has only recently been allowed a price rise and the organisation is supposed to be becoming more efficient in order to face competition.
However, industry and consumers oppose the change. A standard-sized letter is taken as measuring up to 240mm x 165mm and being no thicker than 5mm. All mail above this size will cost more. That would fall into two broad categories, a large letter measuring up to 353mm x 250mm and up to 10mm thick, and anything larger than that, and its weight and dimensions will be taken into account for pricing.
Direct-mail businesses and companies dealing with cheap, light items, such as flower bulbs, will be hardest hit. A spokesman for WWAV Rapp Collins, which handles direct mail for Lloyds TSB and British Gas, said: “This will make direct mail less attractive to many businesses because the cost equation just won’t work.”
William McCracken, of the Greeting Cards Association, said that Britain’s claim of sending high numbers of cards would suffer under the change. He said: “The greetings card industry is worth Pounds 1.2 billion in sales and employs about 100,000 if you include retail. This scheme would have a big impact on that.”
Postwatch, the consumers’ group, said people would be puzzled as to what stamp to put on letters. “It is asking for a big change of culture,” it said.
Royal Mail suggests senders of letters fold them more to fit the standard letter size.
