Royal Mail Collections

[pnagames]

Alan

the number of sales mean nothing without adding the profit per sale next to it.

Simon, i meant companies like am**on, Pl*y etc... if you were spending 50K a year with them and they dont comply then the mention of going to a competitor would send them running to you every wish (and if they are not i am sure there is at least one company out there who will do that)

[siwalker]

You people are making me feel small. We've just crossed 3 a day (and growing),

We were all there once. It's not that long ago I was trekking down to the post office every afternoon.

Cheers,
simon

[siwalker]

We use E*Pro, the last I heard was that introduction of OBA was put back to September, probably because of the strikes.

OBA is out and live - new customers are going onto it and EPro users are being phased in. Problem is RM are slow to respond and we've got to get the staff trained up on OBA in four weeks but we haven't even seen OBA yet. I'm told EPro will switched off at the end of September. Not impressed.

The biggest problem is getting compensation for lost packages (about 25 a year), this usually takes up to 6 months even though we have a fixed profit margin formula.

We don't even bother - we have a similar loss rate, but they're usually low-value packages and the effort involved in claiming is more than they're worth. Higher-value packages go recorded, special delivery or courier. RM losses are simply built into our pricing model - annoying but simple.

Cheers,
simon

[Stereo Steve]

WE are holding off on OBA as it's reportedly dog slow at around 4pm (when we usually are doing epro). I have the system and all logged in. Might try it if we get a quiet day. No way am I going over to OBA until we really have to. It doesn't look any easier than epro either.

We were also trecking to PO only 18 months or so back. Then it was trecking to the SO once we got PPI sorted. Then it was a collection. You know you are getting somewhere when you are the first collection and postie has to call another van and head straight back because you filled it up.

[pinbrook]

Ok stupid Q coming up...

we are considering the £280 pa collection service, as we feel the run up to Xmas will pay for it.

What equipment do we then need to have to properly weigh, price and stamp parcels? How does Certificate of pastage work?

Can we ask for 3 days a week rather than 5? (don't mind still paying the 280)

[Donna]

Hi Jo
We use fishing scales to hook the postage sack on to weigh. You then divide the total weight with the qty of parcels in the bag.
For stamps you will be given a license number which you enter on to some ppi artwork you down load from the RM website.
This stamp is unique to your license and will only work with the relevant posting cheques you fill in with each posting.

Its a really easy system to use.

[Stereo Steve]

We don't even bother - we have a similar loss rate, but they're usually low-value packages and the effort involved in claiming is more than they're worth. Higher-value packages go recorded, special delivery or courier. RM losses are simply built into our pricing model - annoying but simple.

Same here. We lose about .5% and just write it off. We also get stuff returned though undelivered and cannot then contact the customer as they have moved so we end up putting it back on the shelf. So, that's some compensation!

I know of some firms who send everything recorded as they cannot stand the thought that dishonest buyers might be getting one over on them. Must cost them an absolute fortune! I say get over it and put all those 63p's towards sending replacements (replacements always go City Link signed for though).

[pinbrook]

Hi Jo
We use fishing scales to hook the postage sack on to weigh. You then divide the total weight with the qty of parcels in the bag.
For stamps you will be given a license number which you enter on to some ppi artwork you down load from the RM website.
This stamp is unique to your license and will only work with the relevant posting cheques you fill in with each posting.

Its a really easy system to use.

Ok so we pay for the whole sack? and stick labels on that do not actually show each individual cost.

then pay wit ha cheque each time the sack is collected?

what about certs of postage, thats quite important for us

[MDS]

Jo, have you considered hiring a franking machine?

Built in scales up to 2kg I believe, and does all the different post options recorded, special etc.

All the suppliers are doing a free 1 month trial at the moment with £20 of postage chucked in.

We are waiting for ours to turn up to trial, if it works ok then we may also have the collection service as well.

http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/c...diaId=48700695

HTH

Mick

[siwalker]

Ok so we pay for the whole sack? and stick labels on that do not actually show each individual cost.

then pay wit ha cheque each time the sack is collected?

what about certs of postage, thats quite important for us

We have two sets of sacks - one for large letter (small jiffy bags fit this category if they are less than an inch thick packed); and one for packet.
You count the items and weigh the sacks to get an average weight. The PPI label simply marks the pack and does not show any postage value.

We have a Royal Mail account, and use a web-based postage system from Royal Mail called E*pro, into which you enter weights and number and postage types, and it produces a postage docket which goes with the sack. We're then invoiced for the postage - E*Pro calculates the rates and totals.

There's no certificate of posting - I dunno if you can do that through this route. We send Signed For and Special Delivery using the same method. Signed For is just an extra twist to the Packet Post side of things - you have to enter them in a book but then just throw them in the sack with the rest of the packets. Special Delivery requires a separate contract and is very fiddly through E*pro plus yet another book to fill in.

What do you actually use certs of postage for? The fact that Royal Mail are taking away a sack full of mail with documentation probably give syou what you need anyway.

However, the PPI/sack system above - Packet Post - requires a minimum volume. 5000 items per year rings a bell. Yup: http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/j...mediaId=400050

If you don't do that volume you can still have business collections - you just need to have paid for the mail in some way - franked, stamped, SmartStamped, etc. We used SmartStamp for a long time - very useful. Franking machines are a bit of a minefield - usually very expensive to run.

You should easily be able to arrange with your local depot about collection days - they probably won't care what you do. There's a barcode they like to scan to prove they've turned up at your site - we leave ours in a window so if we've knocked off early on a Friday afternoon and taken the sacks to the depot instead, they can still scan it.

The positive side of Royal Mail is that the guys on the ground are usually very helpful - it's just management and the central offices who can make things more difficult.

It was hard work figuring out the correct procedures of labels, bag ties, dockets, etc - RM provide no user documentation - but once sussed it's pretty simple. If you want to know more about Packet Post give me a bell or even drop in to see how it works - we're quite close to you these days. There was also a helpful guy in the main Exeter sorting office who looks after the whole business side of things at the practical level.

Cheers,
simon

[pinbrook]

Thanks Simon, that very useful. Sending SW stuff last Xmas was a nightmare, and this year we've already doubled the parcels we send, so who konw what we ca nexpect in nov/dec.

I wanted certs of postage simply to prove we sent an item, if it goes lost, but you've explained that its covered

i may well come and visit, if thats Ok. i'll be in touch, I never need an excuse to go off on an afternnon jolly, probably leave it til Sept as traffic will be easier. Poxy Grockles

[EDIT] blimey you've moved!! i was born in Tiverton. I was looking forward to a trip to Dartmouth

[Donna]

Jo
Its may be worth ringing the new business team at RM who can guide you on what’s your best option.
Their number is 0845 7950 950

I remember when we set up the account it took a while for some of the plonkers in admin to get things set up (the different depts don't appear to talk to each other) and what should have taken a couple of weeks (credit checks, paperwork etc) ended up taking well over a month. So it’s worth setting up in advance.

[pnagames]

Jo

we used to get certs of posting for everything but now we only get for the european packets that we send.

the UK orders (yes i will admit it) get lost very rarely.

any orders get lost are refunded. european ones are claimed (sometimes we stick the UK ones as well)

we were looking to go for a franking machine

we calculated that it will ADD 5p per order (not a lot) for us. that is including the saving that you supposedly make by using the franking.

costs come from ink, labels & admin charge they add every time you download post.

the funny thing is that we talked to our post office and the postlady said that even if we do franking we still need to wait untill they make sure everything is correct (wtf!!!!). the cow was probably telling porkies as they earn from us from every order but untill we find some time to call RoyalA*s then we cannot be certain

[Miranda Stamp]

What do you actually use certs of postage for? The fact that Royal Mail are taking away a sack full of mail with documentation probably give syou what you need anyway.

No it bl**dy doesn't give you any compensation whatsoever. They send you a smarmy letter back saying without proof of posting we can't compensate. I suppose you could print a list of parcels sent, and I know the driver will sign that he has collected because I know someone that does, but frankly as there's a limited market for our stuff we just don't have the time/resources to do it vs the losses we get (although it's dire right now in BS post codes)

Also re the postal collections, my recommendation to you if you're rural-ish or in a housing estate and not in a business community, is to find out when your local post boxes are collected and apply for the earlier collection, you may be surprised, if not you can always change the time and pay extra.

When our post was collected from home, because the box was emptied at 5ish, they came at 5ish although I'd only paid for before 3. I did have them phone at one point and say they wanted to charge me the higher rate because I was having a 5pm collection 'and it was unfair on other businesses that had to pay extra for a 5pm collection' but I successfully argued the point that I had wanted a before 3 collection because of the school run, and was disappointed they could only come at 5 so could they please re-arrange a driver to come earlier so they said yes at 9am when the box is collected in the mornings - but the local drivers thought it was a bad idea and didn't go down that route (and after a few weeks they dropped the am collection as it was done by the delivering postie on his morning round) so that was that.

Our collection is at 2.15 and it suits us fine as we go at 3 anyway so we do the post then the parcels.

Annoyingly my annual bill is looking to be just short of 13K at the moment, having gone up drastically due to PIP (was about 11K for same turnover prorata) ....anyone in need of nappies? Lee? anyone?

[leehack]

anyone in need of nappies? Lee? anyone?

The rate the little blighter is using them, it'd be economical to start my own factory!