Not content with the cost of a first class letter being almost prohibitive at £1.65, it will be increasing the cost to £1.70. Fortunately, second class postage, as it is regulated, is only rising 2p from 85p to 87p.

The latest rises will simply exacerbate the issue of declining mail volumes, as the more the price is raised, the less people use the post. Online services are now starting to proliferate and most major institutions now nudge their customers to dealing with them online, meaning no more paper bills in the post.

The rises, whilst expected, come as another blow to those who regularly use the postal system as currently second class post can take between two and ten days to be delivered, even when the recipient is a few miles away. First class post is often delayed and Royal Mail are regularly being fined for missing their standard delivery targets.

To deal with this, Royal Mail are looking to vary the conditions of the Universal Service Obligation and drop at least one of their deliveries. Whilst this is meeting with residence amongst consumer groups, it would simply be an official recognition of what has already become ‘de facto’ standard practice. Many homes simply don’t receive mail on certain days of the week and some, just on one or two specific days.

At 87p, second class post still represents good value, given the cost of running a nation-wide postal system, but further rises will make the service even less appealing and the end result could well be the same as Denmark, who will officially cease all mail services in the country at the end of 2025.

So, price rise or no, use it or lose it is the message for all fans of second class stamps!

The post Up goes the price of second class postage, again. appeared first on How much is a 2nd Class Stamp?.

Standard letters will still be able to be sent second class at 75p, but large letters will be increasing from £1.15 to £1.55, a whopping 34.5% rise. Funny, that wasn’t highlighted anywhere in the press release.

We have all seemingly become so inured to the inevitable price rises in everything we buy that have forgotten that Royal Mail normally only raises their prices once a year, yet this is the second one in six months. In doing so, they have effectively admitted that they don’t want people to use the first-class service, by pricing it so far apart from the second-class service. No wonder, as the current first-class service is nothing of the sort and in most cases, indistinguishable from the second-class service. When there is no guarantee of next-day delivery, why would you pay almost twice to price for the service?

Anywhere you look online there are stories from individuals who have missed hospital appointments, received late birthday cards, and raised disputes with online sellers for non-delivery, all because Royal Mail cannot provide the next-day delivery service promised by the first-class service. Throughout all of this, they simply point to dropping mail volumes, increased costs, and the onerous restrictions of the Universal Service Obligation. Fine, but where are the solutions?

The reality is that the UK postal system is in disarray and raising stamp prices in nothing short of rearranging the deckchairs whilst the boat sinks. As Royal Mail is still effectively hamstrung by Government obligations, whilst being a privately owned business, the recipe for disaster is already in place. How long before the entire system for delivering mail reaches a crisis point and someone actually does something to sort this?

The post Royal Mail’s hidden price rise for second class stamps appeared first on How much is a 2nd Class Stamp?.

The obligation means that it recognises Royal Mail as the designated provider of the Universal Postal Service in the UK and it means that they must provide a six-day a week, one price goes anywhere postal service to 30 million UK addresses. This obligation is overseen and monitored by Ofcom.

What are the Minimum Universal Service requirements?

The Postal Services Act 2011 sets out the minimum requirements the Universal Service Provider must deliver, in this case, Royal Mail. These statutory obligations can only be altered with the consent of the UK Parliament. The minimum requirements for all postal items not subject to exemption (including those whose weight does not exceed 20 kilograms or whose dimensions fall outside the minimum and maximum dimensions) are as follows:

1. Delivery of letters or parcels (including those posted outside the UK)

• At least one delivery of letters every Monday to Saturday to every address in the UK.
• At least one delivery of other parcels every Monday to Friday to every address in the UK.

2. Collection of letters or parcels (including those for onward transmission outside the UK)

• At least one collection of letters every Monday to Saturday from every access point in the UK used for receiving letters and parcels for onward transmission
• At least one collection of other parcels every Monday to Friday from every access point in the UK used for that purpose.

3. Service at affordable prices at a uniform public tariff

• Postal services – (including conveying, receiving, collecting, sorting, and delivering) at an affordable, uniform public tariff across the UK; and to places outside the UK.

4. A registered items service at a uniform UK-wide, affordable public tariff.
5. An insured items service at a uniform UK-wide affordable public tariff.
6. A free-of-charge postal service to blind or partially sighted people.
7. Free carriage of legislative petitions and addresses.
8. Redirection, Post restante and Retention services

For the purposes of this blog, the key element we focus on is point 3, the provision of an affordable service at a uniform rate. This means that for a single price you can send a letter or parcel anywhere around the UK, with no premium added for distance.

Where did the obligation start?

The obligation started with the introduction of The Uniform Penny Post in 1840, an event engineered by Roland Hill (later ennobled as Sir Roland Hill) and marked by the introduction of the world’s first postage stamp, the Penny Black. It was part of Britain’s official postal service, which to this point had been fragmented and inconsistent. The reforms were meant to eradicate abuse and corruption in a new government-run initiative. With these changes, it became more accessible for British citizens because now you had to pay only one penny per letter delivered anywhere within Great Britain or Ireland no matter how far apart they are from each other. This single act is credited with doing more for the improvement of literacy across the UK than anything else.

How does the obligation work in practice?

As Royal Mail has an extensive network of distribution and sorting offices around the country and a reliable and well-organised logistics team, then mail can travel, quite literally, from Lands End to John O’Groats in a single day.

In practice this means that two letters, posted the same day, one with a first class stamp and the other with a second class stamp, can often travel in the same mailbag from the post box to the sorting office, then from the sorting office to the distribution hub and from there onto the destination sorting office, local PO and eventually the address. And of course, this means that despite a big price difference between first class at 85p and second class at 66p*, the reality is that they receive pretty much the same treatment.

How is the Universal Service Obligation measured?

Royal Mail is required to publish quarterly Quality of Service reports against delivery targets set and reviewed by the postal industry regulator Ofcom. These targets are to ensure that Royal Mail continues to meet the obligations and are broken into two specific targets:

First Class mail – a minimum of 93 percent delivered the next working day

Second Class mail – a minimum of 98.5 percent delivered within three working days.

Royal Mail naturally, therefore, has demanding quality of service standards that they must meet to deliver the Universal Service obligation of collecting and delivering mail six days a week at a uniform price across the UK. Their performance is independently measured by a market research agency, Kantar, with the methodology employed and the results obtained separately verified by auditors appointed by the regulator Ofcom.

Is there a future for second class stamps?

At the moment, the answer appears to be yes. It all boils down to the interpretation of point three again, “service at affordable prices at a uniform public tariff” and how this might be seen. Looking back to Rowland Hill’s original reform, it was essential to make letter writing and sending inexpensive as it helped commerce and literacy.

Today, much of the traditional letter writing has been replaced by email, and whilst this is quick and convenient, and in many cases free, it has limitations. The obligation still, however, means that there needs to be a single ‘affordable’ option, and whilst a lower value option is on the menu, they can continue to argue that relative to the higher option, it is affordable. This strange logic may well apply for some time to come and ensure the longevity of a second class stamp service.

*these prices are correct as of September 2021

The post What is Royal Mail’s Universal Service Obligation and why is it important? appeared first on How much is a 2nd Class Stamp?.