NEW RULES FOR LEAVING SACKS IN LOCAL OFFICE

[cultman1]

Just discovered today at my local PO in New Kings road FULHAM SW6 small businisses cant leave their sacks of mail/packages etc anymore at our local Post Office. THis will be a nightmare for small businesses who cant afford
to pay the Ropyal Mail collection fee of £900 a year for collection... the sorting office drivers never get to the Post Office at a specified time due to traffic resttrictions etc
THis is adraconian rule and will drive many small companies to other courier companies. Comments anyone? Thanks

[MGB]

My post in here:
http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... 18&t=46602" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hi Postman

From a customer POV, the sooner they realise that RM is separate from POL, and that they took on a direct service from RM, the better.

PPI was developed for volume items and was supposed to be collected by RM direct from the customers premises. Sub Offices were not set up to take in "commercial" mail, particularly volume. All too often the collection Postie overloads their vans due to this kind of mail.

This is all being done to assist PPI contract holders from not having to pay for a dedicated collection, depriving RM of revenue, POL of revenue, and adversely impacting on the Subbie, and the Postman grades.

The moment the customer goes to contract mail, they cease to be customers of Postmasters, they should take their own mail direct to the sorting office.

Subbie

But from the customers point of view, they can get a saving on their postage through PPI, but it's daft money for a collection from a small business POV, it's OK if you're some multinational firm, but not a local shop running a website sending maybe 25 - 50 items a day. RM need to make it clear you need to have a collection or take to the DO/MC direct, at the moment there is nothing to say that on the RM site.

I think RM is going to have to start doing free collections anyway to compete - I can send a packet up to 1kg with up to 5 day delivery, full tracking and a signature for £3.30 by courier, and they'll come and pick it up. Compare that to RM 2nd Recorded, it's only 15p less, it only goes up to 750g for that price, it doesn't have tracking and I have to take it to a PO (which is a looong way since they shut the local one 5 years ago)... Luckily I know the postie who empties the post box at the end of the road quite well, and he's happy to take a sack or so of none Recorded/Specials each day, but Recorded/SDs still have to go to the PO, and anything paid with PayPal (most of my items), has to go recorded at least...

[not me]

Just discovered today at my local PO in New Kings road FULHAM SW6 small businisses cant leave their sacks of mail/packages etc anymore at our local Post Office. THis will be a nightmare for small businesses who cant afford
to pay the Ropyal Mail collection fee of £900 a year for collection... the sorting office drivers never get to the Post Office at a specified time due to traffic resttrictions etc
THis is adraconian rule and will drive many small companies to other courier companies. Comments anyone? Thanks

well you know tthis isnt anything to do with RM here?
My comment is look into dropping it off at your local delivery office if possible

[somerset]

Wait until August the 20th ! When we have to scan on the PDA . Metered , stamped or PPI . At every bussiness collection .

[TrueBlueTerrier]

This thread WILL throw some light on this matter http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... 18&t=46602" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Mordillo]

Just discovered today at my local PO in New Kings road FULHAM SW6 small businisses cant leave their sacks of mail/packages etc anymore at our local Post Office. THis will be a nightmare for small businesses who cant afford
to pay the Ropyal Mail collection fee of £900 a year for collection... the sorting office drivers never get to the Post Office at a specified time due to traffic resttrictions etc
THis is adraconian rule and will drive many small companies to other courier companies. Comments anyone? Thanks

I too have had this problem, it is to do with the Post Office agreeing with Royal Mail that the postmaster checks every single parcel of prepaid mail that is getting dropped off in a bid to save Royal Mail doing it themselves, individual Post Offices will get penalised if the prepaid mail is wrong, e.g. Packets paid as Large Letters. Royal Mail don't care if you tell them you're going to take your business elsewhere, I've been told they will only do something when they see their customers leaving in droves.

The annoying part to all this is Royal Mail failed to notify their customers of the changes and of possible problems. I suggest you email the Royal Mail CEO moya.greene@royalmail.com, then she may finally realise what a stupid idea this is.

[cultman1]

Thank you all for your replies. I have written to the MD of Royal Mail and await a reply. This will be the kiss of death for small growing businesses who rely on franked mail etc and shipping out up to 15-25 packages a day. Our local Post Offices dont even have ANY bagsset u pon metal holdersanymore to drop single parcels off now and very little space behind their counters for storage, it is a no win situation for all concerned with a draconian rule sent down from the CEOs of Royal MAil who just DONT care about the small business community....

[DGP1]

Take them to the DO/MC, that should get around the problem, or just pay the £3.50 per day for a collection.

[cultman1]

Paying £3.50 per collection has to be paid in the form of £900 upfront each year! It is not possible to drop off 1-2 heavy sacks to our local sorting office which is 1.5 miles away. I am a one man small business
I am still awaiting a final reply from my contact at The Royal Mail over the future of this problem.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

This thread WILL throw some light on this matter http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... 18&t=46602" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Up until now professional printing companies have been saving Royal Mail PacketPost users the trouble of printing their own PPI labels and selling pre-printed PPI labels, with the customer’s own license number, on eBay.

PPI labels (which can also be printed directly onto envelopes) are technically worthless as they should be weighed, counted and then collected by Royal Mail, although doubtless they cause Royal Mail Revenue Protection Officers a nightmare to administrate. What should happen is when items are posted the weights and number of items are tallied up and the user then pays Royal Mail for the number of items sent. What’s all too easy is to slip an extra couple of parcels in, or to under declare the total weight thus reducing your overall bill.

That’s why recently Post Offices have started to reject PPI mail and Royal Mail are asking for paperwork with each collection, not just a total at the end of the day.

[DGP1]

Paying £3.50 per collection has to be paid in the form of £900 upfront each year! It is not possible to drop off 1-2 heavy sacks to our local sorting office which is 1.5 miles away. I am a one man small business
I am still awaiting a final reply from my contact at The Royal Mail over the future of this problem.

1 1/2 miles!!!!! you should be able to walk that but maybe putting them in your car and driving them there might be an idea. I'm afraid that RM is a business and they have to make money from whatever stream they think.

[Mordillo]

Paying £3.50 per collection has to be paid in the form of £900 upfront each year! It is not possible to drop off 1-2 heavy sacks to our local sorting office which is 1.5 miles away. I am a one man small business
I am still awaiting a final reply from my contact at The Royal Mail over the future of this problem.

1 1/2 miles!!!!! you should be able to walk that but maybe putting them in your car and driving them there might be an idea. I'm afraid that RM is a business and they have to make money from whatever stream they think.

Why should Royal Mail just change the terms of the contract without any notice, I and other small businesses signed up to an OBA account on the agreement that a local post office could be nominated to drop the mailbags of PPI mail off at. I have someone from the Royal Mail CEOs team working on this and it seems very few people in Royal Mail knew about this change and whoever thought up the idea didn't think about the implications it would have with their customers using the Post Office.

[not me]

Paying £3.50 per collection has to be paid in the form of £900 upfront each year! It is not possible to drop off 1-2 heavy sacks to our local sorting office which is 1.5 miles away. I am a one man small business
I am still awaiting a final reply from my contact at The Royal Mail over the future of this problem.

1 1/2 miles!!!!! you should be able to walk that but maybe putting them in your car and driving them there might be an idea. I'm afraid that RM is a business and they have to make money from whatever stream they think.

Why should Royal Mail just change the terms of the contract without any notice, I and other small businesses signed up to an OBA account on the agreement that a local post office could be nominated to drop the mailbags of PPI mail off at. I have someone from the Royal Mail CEOs team working on this and it seems very few people in Royal Mail knew about this change and whoever thought up the idea didn't think about the implications it would have with their customers using the Post Office.

Interesting
you may have missed it. Things change in R year on year.Not so long ago we were being told small businesses didnt need RM.
Privitisation is coming and as part of that the break up of the network.
So ultimatly it would most likely end up with RM paying POst Office counters for taking in PPI mail

[cultman1]

1.5 miles each way is a 45 minute timeslot in my busy 12 hour day. I dont have any staff.....
My main overriding complaint is the lack of transparancy by RM and NOT being advised in advance by letter or email of these change of rules with POC and our sacks. If we were advised in advance we could all make alternative arrangements etc in the lead up time to these changes....

[not me]

1.5 miles each way is a 45 minute timeslot in my busy 12 hour day. I dont have any staff.....
My main overriding complaint is the lack of transparancy by RM and NOT being advised in advance by letter or email of these change of rules with POC and our sacks. If we were advised in advance we could all make alternative arrangements etc in the lead up time to these changes....

well regardless of notice,say it was 28 days.
What would your solution be?
£900/260 days(working on an average 5 day week)
gives you a cost of £3.46 per day for collections
however that figure is inclusive of VAT. Are you VAT registered?
so exluding VAT you have a cost of £2.88 per day.
I'm sure 45 minutes plus fuel is worth more to you.
Any other businesses local to you?
perhaps you could combine your collection costs or split drop off duties.

People need to wake up to the 'service' of RM days being long gone
RM are clamping down on the likes of PPI because it loses them money