Changes to Royal Mail's Standard Parcel service

Royal Mail today welcomed Postcomm’s decision to allow it to make alterations to its Standard Parcel service.

From 1 April 2004, Royal Mail will withdraw the delivery of Standard Parcels weighing more than 20kgs – a service historically provided, although not required under the terms of the Universal Service Obligation within the Postal Services Act.

Royal Mail’s network is not designed for handling items weighing more than 20kgs, which account for less than one per cent of the four-and-a-half million Standard Parcels it delivers each year.

Special arrangements are needed, including the use of two delivery people and specialist equipment, and this means that Royal Mail loses money on every higher weight item it handles. Royal Mail will continue to deliver parcels weighing up to 20kgs at a standard, uniform price to all addresses across the UK.

Royal Mail’s Head of Goods Distribution, Ross Drake, said: “There are specialist carriers that have designed their networks to handle items weighing more than 20kgs. Our network is not designed for this and for every higher weight parcel we handle, we have to put ad hoc arrangements in place to distribute and deliver it.”

Royal Mail’s current charge for handling Standard Parcels weighing between 20kg and 30kgs is £10.76. The real cost of providing the higher weight delivery is between £22 and £36, depending on a variety of factors including the destination, resulting in an annual loss on the service of around £1 million.

Postcomm has also agreed to allow Royal Mail to make alterations to its next day guaranteed service, Special Delivery, if it so wishes.
The service remains the same for the time being while Royal Mail considers how the changes should be implemented.

The package of alterations agreed by Postcomm allow Royal Mail to increase compensation for loss or damage as part of the basic price, charge for a copy of the signature on delivery, and to adapt the time at which a money back guarantee is paid for late delivery. The vast majority of people would not see a change to the Special Delivery service they receive.

Ends

Issued by Royal Mail:
148 Old Street
LONDON
EC1V 9HQ
www.royalmail.com

Notes to editors:
Special Delivery offers a better quality of service – more than 99 per cent of items delivered on time – at a lower price than any other similar service offered by rival companies.

Royal Mail has expanded the Special Delivery range to offer guaranteed 9am delivery – a new service introduced in response to customer demand.