Questions and Answers about Pricing in Proportion

What is Pricing in Proportion?

Why is Royal Mail making the change?

When was the new method of pricing introduced

The launch date was 21^st August 2006.

How Pricing in Proportion works

There are three formats of mail which affect the price along with the class of service and weight. The three formats are...

Who will be affected?*

All inland Royal Mail customers will be affected by Pricing In Proportion but Royal Mail estimate that the pricing of about 70% of mail will not change.

International Mail will not be included in Pricing In Proportion and will remain on a weight based tariff.

Where there are price changes the general effect is to raise prices for relatively light but large or unusually shaped postal items, and lower prices for relatively heavy postal items.

Which Royal Mail services are affected by these changes?

Ordinary letters; some pre-sorted services mainly used by large mailers such as Mailsort®, Walksort® and Presstream®; packet services used by businesses such as Packetpost™, Packetsort™ and Flatsort™; and Response Services such as business reply envelopes and Freepost™ will be affected. Some business services such as Cleamail®, Mailsort ®120 and Mailsort®700 are already priced on size, so their pricing system will be largely unaffected

Which Royal Mail services will not be affected by the changes?

Special Delivery, Door to Door, standard parcels, and all items weighing more than 1kg will not be affected.

Do the changes affect international services?

No International Services will not be affected by the August 2006 changes, although Royal Mail will be introducing Pricing In Proportion pricing for international mail in the future.

What's the difference between 'letters', 'large letters' and 'packets'?

'Letters' will include most letters, postcards, greetings cards, bills, statements and some brochures and catalogues. 'Letters' will be A5 or less size, half a sheet of standard A4 paper, 5mm in thickness and 0 -100g in weight. 'Letters' currently comprise over 70% of total mail and over 80% of stamped mail.

'Large Letters' will include most brochures, catalogues, company reports, magazines, CDs and DVDs. 'Large letters' will not exceed 353mm x 250mm in size (which is slightly larger than standard A4 paper) and 25mm in thickness. 'Large letters' may contain unfolded sheets of standard A4 paper. 'Large letters' currently comprise 22% of total mail and 11% of stamped mail. This is expected to change to 19% of total mail with Pricing in Proportion.

'Packets' will include VHS cassettes, books, some magazines and catalogues, parts and samples, foodstuffs, prints and posters in cylindrical packaging. 'Packets' will be any item longer than 353mm or wider than 250mm or thicker than 25mm or heavier than 750g. The maximum weight allowed for Second Class items will increase from the current 750g limit to 1kg. 'Packets' currently comprise 4% of total mail and 5% of stamped mail. This is expected to change to 3% of total mail with Pricing in Proportion.

Does this mean I will have to measure my mail to work out what price to use?

You shouldn't need to measure your mail...the price categories should be straightforward to work out. An ordinary envelope up to half the size of a standard A4 sheet will be a basic 'letter', costing the same price as now; up to A4 size will be a ' large letter', charged at the next price up; and anything bigger will be a 'packet'.

Pitney Bowes' unique Dimendions-on-the-Way™ and Weigh-on-the-Way™ technology will automatically rate mail based on both it's weight and dimensions; the franking machine will calculate this as the mail piece passes through the machine and then apply the correct postage. This will make life easier for people who mail larger volumes of mixed size and weight mail.

Will Royal Mail provide everyone with a measuring template or device?

Shortly before the introduction of Pricing in Proportion, Royal Mail launched a major communications programme designed to educate everyone about the changes. As part of this exercise, paper template guides were delivered to every household in the UK . These are also be available to download from the web. Business customers may also request a cardboard version of the template guide.

Which Royal Mail services will not be affected by the changes?

Some business services such as Cleanmail®, Mailsort® 120 and Mailsort® 700 are already priced on size, so their pricing system will be largely unaffected.

Why is Royal Mail taking the thickness and weight of a letter into account in deciding the price to charge for an item?

The thickness of a letter determines how it is handled, and this affects the cost. The first size category ('letter') includes items up to 5mm thick since this is the maximum thickness that most of our machinery can handle. The next size ('large letter') steps up to 25mm, which is the limit for sorting larger letters at the standard workstations in mail centres and delivery offices. Thicker items ('packets'') often won't fit through customer letterboxes.

What about charities? I've heard that they have to pay more f they send out mailings including pens.

Letters with pens inside cost Royal Mail more to handle because they are normally more than 5mm thick, do not stack, do not bend and so they don't fit through their machinery. This is why they cost more to send. However, charities are be able to include extras, such as brochures, leaflets and other items, within the more generous weight steps without increasing costs - provided they keep to the size categories.

What about prices for Special Delivery and Recorded Delivery?*

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