The Royal Mail reduce prices on Tracked services and offer free collection on everything, but are they still the best value for sending your parcels?
The Royal Mail has reduced prices on their Tracked 24 and Tracked 48 services until the end of the year (31st Of December), and for smaller parcels, under 2kg, you can now get a Tracked 48 for £3.35, or with a signature for £3.71, or a Tracked 24 service for £4.45, or with a signature for £4.81.
As an added bonus, the Royal Mail are collecting ALL parcels, large letters or even standard letters, where the postage has been purchased online, for free (usually 72p for each item).
This is welcome news for people who have a side hustle selling items via sites such as eBay and Etsy, as it will save money on the cost of shipping goods, plus with free collection, it means that the daily trek to the Post Office to get the items sent out, won't need to be done, as the posties will collect direct from them, no matter if it's a residential or business address.
It's also going to be useful for anyone sending gifts this coming Christmas, as again it will save the long lines at the Post Office, and removes that hassle, plus you can send as many parcels, or as few items as you like every day, there are no restrictions.
If you have a Royal Mail pre-paid return label for anything, you can use the service to book a collection on your return, which also will be free, with next day collection, from any UK address, be it a business or home address, Monday to Saturday.
You need to book your postage and collection HERE, and anything you book today will be collected tomorrow. You can book up to 9 pm for next day collection, later in some areas.
It's worth noting that workers are currently in dispute with Royal Mail over pay. There will be industrial action on the 26th and 31st of August and the 8th and 9th of September this year, which may result in postal delays. So it's worth avoiding posting during this time if possible, plus there may be additional days added at a later date.
The promotional Royal Mail postage prices for under 2kg items are on the chart at the bottom of the page. As a price comparison, using a service such as Parcel 2 Go, a price comparison site for parcel sending, Evri (formerly Hermes), would collect a Parcel from you (collection the next working day) for £5.21 inc Vat, (No Vat on Royal Mail parcels), which is around a 3 day delivery time. If you wanted to drop a parcel at an Evri parcel shop or at a parcel locker, the cost would drop to £4.26 for a 3-day service or £5.22 for a next-day service.
All Evri services are without a signature, which would be an extra charge of around 25p per parcel; however, as Evri currently don't seem to be collecting signatures due to ongoing Pandemic concerns (hmmm), then that's probably 25p with saving!
Alternatively, consider using Transglobal Express, which isn't as well known as Royal Mail or Evri, but is a company that I personally use for shipping goods for my main job (blogging doesn't yet pay all my bills!), and are also a price comparison site, and offer Evri 3 day delivery for £3.38 + Vat and a next day Evri service for £3.95 + Vat, with the 25p option for signatures and a 10p charge to have a text sent to your recipient with tracking updates.
The significant benefit that I find really useful with Transglobal is that they will collect the parcel from you, for free, no matter which service you have chosen to use, on the same day, as long as you book by Midday (postal restrictions apply), saving you the hassle of waiting an extra day, to having to drop off your parcel somewhere.
They also offer some market-beating prices on International shipments, which I've found knock the socks off its rivals, again with a same-day collection available!
Parcel 2 Go, and Transglobal parcels services have a higher weight allowance for parcels than Royal Mail (2kg). So Royal Mail will, more or less, be cheaper for lighter parcels. Still, once you go over that 2kg weight limit, the other parcel services will start to make you some serious savings - a 5kg parcel starts at around £6.95 with Royal Mail. Still, depending on the dimensions of the box, the other company's price won't be any higher than sending an under 2kg parcel, so for the person sending a more significant amount of parcels, the savings will start to stack up!
All information is correct as of the 17th of August 2022 but is subject to change at any time.