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How does "Pricing in Proportion" affect the cost of me sending my cards?
The way postage is priced has changed – what will this mean to your business?
You may already be aware that Royal Mail has changed the way that postage is priced, with effect from 21st August 2006.
You knew how to work out the postage price of a corporate Christmas card or a letter. After all, you’ve been doing it the same way for years. The price of the postage stamp depended purely on the weight of the Christmas card. So most corporate Christmas cards weighed under 60g and cost you 32p whatever the size of the card. And as the mail got heavier, the price of the stamp rose.
As from the 21st August 2006, the Royal Mail has introduced a new system not just based on weight but also on size. They believe this new pricing structure better reflects their costs. This pricing structure effects all mail that is sent – not just your corporate Christmas cards and calendars.
Postage prices will therefore take into account size as well as weight. This is the principle behind the new pricing system, which has been called "Pricing in Proportion"
The cost of sending your corporate Christmas cards will be determined by the size of the card you choose to send!
It will cost you more in postage to send larger cards and calendars - thus size of the cards you choose will directly affect your postage costs. This could amount to quite an increase if you choose a larger style card and if you send a lot of business Christmas cards.
We have been conscious of the changes that Royal Mail have planned to implement. All of the card designs within our 2006 Corporate Charity Christmas Card range have been designed with this new rule in mind.
Our corporate Christmas cards have been specially designed to fit in with the cheapest category of the Royal Mail's new pricing policy – called the "letter" category. This means that all of our cards do not exceed the "letter" category and are therefore no more that 240mm x 165mm wide, 5mm thick nor weigh more than 100g.
Prior to the changes, if you put a first class stamp on your business Christmas cards weighing less than 60g you would have paid 32p to post the card. A card weighing between 60g and 100g would have cost you 49p per card to send first class.
Sending a corporate Christmas card from The Card Company means that you will only pay 32p per card for First Class Postage – a saving of between 2p and 17p, depending on the weight of your card.
Choosing a card with a size or weight outside of the "letter" category will now cost you more to send.
By choosing a card that does not fit within the "letter" category will mean that your postage costs are higher. This could be by as much as 12p per card if sent first class and 14p per card if sent by second class. Multiply this by an average card order quantity of say 250 cards and your mailing costs could increase by £30.00 or more (12p x 250 cards).
As this affects all of your office mailings, we suggest that you obtain a handy template, a set of weighing scales and a price table from Royal Mail so that you can see how their new pricing structure will affect your mailing costs.
This will give you a guide to the measurements, which will help you to determine whether your mail is classed as a letter, large letter or packet.
For more information about Pricing in Proportion and how it affects you call the Royal Mail's dedicated PIP team on 0845 113 113.
You can also find further details at www.royalmail.com/pip
