from 31st March 2014
2014
Price guide
Royal Mail Business Mail
1st Class and Business
Mail Rate Card prices
®
Business Mail 1st Class and Business Mail pricing depends on:
• the volume of your mailing
• h
ow your letters are addressed – e.g. using OCR,
Barcode or Mailmark™ barcode
• whether you are presenting mail sorted or not sorted
• your mail items weighing no more than 750g
• a ll items meeting the Letter and Large Letter
format dimensions.
Helping your business thrive
and prosper
Online Business Account
Royal Mail is a driving force for helping all individuals and businesses
communicate and trade with each other to thrive and prosper.
We focus on not just delivering to schedule, but on helping you with your wider needs
around communication and trade with individuals and businesses locally, across the
UK and worldwide – helping you do things you didn’t think possible. All delivered by
Royal Mail.
We also have a full range of International contract services to send outbound mail from
the UK and receive inbound mail from overseas. To find out more about our international
contract services go to: www.royalmail.com/ics
Of course, if you have any questions about our prices or services, or need advice on
which services may be best for your business, just call our Business Customer Helpline
on: 08457 950 950 between 8.00am and 6.00pm – Monday to Friday.
The best way to access services in this price guide is via a Royal Mail Online Business
Account, which is our online ordering and invoicing system. It allows you to order
mail services and manage your Royal Mail invoices quickly and simply in one place.
For more information go to: www.royalmail.com/oba
Royal Mail Mailmark option
®
Royal Mail Mailmark is an exciting new option for machine readable Business Mail 1st
and Business Mail. A unique Mailmark™ barcode is added to each item in your mailing
and associated information is submitted to us via an eManifest. This enables us to
provide you with consignment level reporting on mail performance and predicted
delivery at no extra cost from Royal Mail. The Mailmark™ option is being rolled out
in 2014. For more information relating to the new Mailmark™ option please visit
www.royalmail.com/mailmark
Business Mail Rate Card
The final invoice price is based on the base price and any applicable percentage
discount. The prices determined in this rate card are indicative and may not perfectly
match the final invoiced amount due to rounding.
Business Mail 1st Class and Business Mail share many of the same features, other than
delivery speed. For all the options set out in this Rate Card the same options apply to
Business Mail 1st Class and to Business Mail, unless otherwise stated.
From 31st March 2014 prices in this rate card can be found at
www.royalmail.com/business-mail
Although correct at the time this price guide was produced (March 2014), postal prices,
fees and other conditions are subject to revision from time to time and services may
need to be added or withdrawn.
Up-to-date information may be obtained by visiting www.royalmail.com
Royal Mail Contract Prices March 2014
www.royalmail.com
08457 950 950
Royal Mail Contract Prices March 2014
www.royalmail.com
08457 950 950
Business Mail
4
Unsorted
1st Class*
Full Price
49.0p
74.0p
104.0p
138.0p
195.0p
Weight
0-100g
0-100g
101-250g
251-500g
501-750g
2nd Class**
Full Price
35.0p
60.0p
85.0p
113.0p
159.0p
Prices in this table exclude VAT, which is charged at the standard rate.
*for Business Mail 1st Class only
**for Business Mail only
***In order to qualify for a price based on number of items, items must be of the same service, class and format,
and be contained on a single sales order.
Table 3 – Volume thresholds per day
Letter
Large Letter
Band 1
0-999
Band 2
1000-2499
250-749
Band 3
2500-9999
750-1999
Band 4
10000-24999
2000-4999
Band 5
25000+
5000+
Volume Related Discounts (VRDs) for our Machine-readable option, Machine-readable Plus option,
Machine-readable Advanced option and Non-machine-readable, non-sorted options:
Table 4 – Discounts*
Letter
Large Letter
Table 2 – Machine-readable, non-sorted and Plus options
Format
Option
Weight
1st Class*
Full Price
Letter
Machine-readable OCR
0-100g
42.8p
28.1p
Machine-readable Barcode
0-100g
42.5p
27.8p
Machine-readable Plus OCR
0-100g
42.3p
27.6p
Machine-readable Plus Barcode/
MailmarkTM barcode
Machine-readable Advanced***
0-100g
42.0p
27.3p
0-100g
43.7p
28.7p
Machine-readable OCR/
Plus OCR/
MailmarkTM barcode
0-100g
70.0p
56.0p
101-250g
100.0p
81.0p
251-500g
134.0p
109.0p
501-750g
191.0p
155.0p
Large Letter
5
Volume threshold per day (n.b. 500 items per mailing entry level for some Machine-readable Letters,
250 items for all Machine-readable Large Letters):
Table 1 – Non-machine-readable, non-sorted option
Format***
Letter
Large Letter
Business Mail
2nd Class**
Full Price
Band 1
0.00%
Band 2
1.50%
1.50%
Band 3
3.50%
3.50%
Band 4
5.50%
5.50%
Band 5
7.50%
7.50%
* Discount is applicable on mailings posted on a single sales order from the same site and cannot be aggregated across product options,
class or format and are for account customers only. VRDs are applicable on the basic postage element of mailings and are not applied
to any “add-ons”, e.g. Royal Mail Signed For ®. For account customers only on our Machine-readable option & Machine readable Plus
option, and account and franking customers for our Machine-readable Advanced option.
Prices in this table exclude VAT, which is charged at the standard rate.
*for Business Mail 1st Class only.
**for Business Mail only.
***Items posted on account that do not meet the machine-readable Advanced specification will be charged at full Non-machinereadable rate. Discounts apply above 500 items per mailing.
Royal Mail Contract Prices March 2014
www.royalmail.com
08457 950 950
Royal Mail Contract Prices March 2014
www.royalmail.com
08457 950 950
Business Mail
6
Business Mail
7
Low Sort
Low Sort
Table 1 – Full prices and per gram increments
Table 3 – Volume Related Discount***
Format
Letter
Large Letter OCR
Large Letter MailmarkTM
barcode
Weight
0-100g
0-100g
101-250g
251-750g
0-100g
101-250g
251-750g
1st Class*
Full
Per Gram
Price Increment
2nd Class**
Full
Per Gram
Price Increment
Economy**
Full
Per Gram
Price Increment
47.3p
60.4p
68.5p
68.5p
60.6p
68.2p
68.2p
32.7p
42.5p
55.5p
55.5p
43.1p
56.0p
56.0p
29.5p
38.1p
49.2p
49.2p
38.5p
49.4p
49.4p
N/A
N/A
N/A
0.1962p
N/A
N/A
0.1848p
N/A
N/A
N/A
0.1463p
N/A
N/A
0.1414p
N/A
N/A
N/A
0.1442p
N/A
N/A
0.1373p
Format
Letter
Large Letter
OCR
Prices in this table exclude VAT, which is charged at the standard rate.
Table 2 – Sortation and machine-readable discount
Letters OCR
Letters Barcode & MailmarkTM barcode
Large Letters OCR
Large Letters MailmarkTM barcode
1st Class*
Direct Items
2nd Class**
Direct Items
Economy**
Direct Items
19.50%
20.80%
10.00%
12.00%
19.50%
20.80%
10.00%
12.00%
19.50%
20.80%
10.00%
12.00%
Large Letter
MailmarkTM
barcode
Number of
Direct Items
4,000-19,999
20,000-39,999
40,000-79,999
80,000-119,999
120,000 +
1,000-9,999
10,000-19,999
20,000-39,999
40,000-59,999
60,000 +
1,000 – 9,999
10,000 – 19,999
20,000 – 39,999
40,000 – 59,999
60,000 +
1st Class*
Direct Items
2nd Class**
Direct Items
Economy**
Direct Items
0.00%
1.50%
3.50%
4.50%
5.30%
0.00%
1.00%
1.50%
2.00%
3.00%
0.00%
1.50%
3.50%
4.50%
5.30%
0.00%
1.50%
3.50%
4.50%
5.30%
0.00%
1.00%
1.50%
2.00%
3.00%
0.00%
1.50%
3.50%
4.50%
5.30%
0.00%
1.50%
3.50%
4.50%
5.30%
0.00%
1.00%
1.50%
2.00%
3.00%
0.00%
1.50%
3.50%
4.50%
5.30%
*for Business Mail 1st Class only.
**for Business Mail only.
***Volume Related Discounts for Direct items are based on total daily volumes over multiple sales order lines providing all items are
posted on the same day; posted from the same posting location (site); posted via the same product and format and only apply to
Direct items (Residue items are not counted towards the calculation).
NB: When you are making a Low Sort posting and have the option on OBA to enter the volume as either
Directs or Residues please select the Direct option. While there is only one sorting option available to
you, to ensure that the correct discounts are applied please enter the items as ‘Directs’.
Table 4 - Trayed Mail Savings
Saving per item
Low Sort Letters
0.20p
Low Sort Large Letters (up to 10mm thick)
0.30p
Discounts apply after all other discounts (VRDs, sortation etc) are applied but before VAT
For further information on using trays please visit www.royalmail.com/traysavings
Royal Mail Contract Prices March 2014
www.royalmail.com
08457 950 950
Royal Mail Contract Prices March 2014
www.royalmail.com
08457 950 950
Business Mail
8
Business Mail
9
Calculating the price of your mailing
High Sort
Table 1 – Full prices and per gram increments
Step 1: Find the full price for the items you are mailing from Table 1. If the item is Large
Letter format and weighs more than 250g, then an incremental price should be
added to the full price based on the exact weight of the item. The incremental
price is calculated as the incremental weight in grams above 250g multiplied by
the gram price increment. The result is rounded to the nearest 1/10th of a penny.
Step 2: Identify the appropriate sortation and machine-readable discount from Table 2.
Step 3:Add to the sortation and machine-readable discount the applicable volume related
discount from Table 3.
Step 4: Apply the aggregate discount percentage to the full price to calculate the item price.
Step 5:Multiply the item price by the number of items to calculate the total transaction
price excluding VAT.
Letter
Large Letter
A Low Sort Economy posting of 102,000 Letters OCR weighing 80g each.
Step 1: The full price for a Low Sort Economy option 80g Letter = 29.5p from Table 1.
Step 2: Sortation and machine-readable discount for Low Sort Letters OCR = 19.5%
from Table 2.
0-100g
0-100g
101-250g
251-750g
Economy**
Full
Per Gram
Price
Increment
49.5p
60.6p
68.2p
68.2p
34.1p
43.1p
56.0p
56.0p
28.6p
38.5p
49.4p
49.4p
N/A
N/A
N/A
0.1848p
N/A
N/A
N/A
0.1414p
N/A
N/A
N/A
0.1373p
Table 2 – Sortation Discounts
Letter
Large Letter
1st Class*
Direct
Residue
Items
Items
9.00%
6.00%
12.00%
2.10%
2nd Class**
Direct
Residue
Items
Items
9.00%
6.00%
12.00%
2.10%
Economy**
Direct
Residue
Items
Items
9.00%
6.00%
12.00%
2.10%
Table 3 – Volume Related Discounts for Direct***
Step 3:VRD from Table 3 = 4.5%, added to the sortation and machine-readable discount
of 19.5% gives total aggregate discount of 24.0%
Format
Step 4: Price per item = 29.5p x (100%-24.0%) = 22.42p
Letter
Step 5: Total price of mailing= (22.42p x 102,000) /100 = £22,868.40 (excluding VAT).
Trayed Mail Savings: Letter mailings presented in trays will save
0.2p per item from Table 4 = (0.2p x 102,000)/100 = £204.00 (excluding VAT).
Total tray price of mailing = £22,868.40 - £204.00 = £22,664.40 (excluding VAT).
Weight
2nd Class**
Full
Per Gram
Price
Increment
Prices in this table exclude VAT, which is charged at the standard rate.
Format
Worked example
Format
1st Class*
Full
Per Gram
Price
Increment
Large Letter
Number of
Direct Items
4,000-19,999
20,000-39,999
40,000-79,999
80,000-119,999
120,000 +
1,000-9,999
10,000-19,999
20,000-39,999
40,000-59,999
60,000 +
1st Class*
Direct Items
2nd Class**
Direct Items
Economy**
Direct Items
0.00%
1.50%
3.50%
4.50%
5.30%
0.00%
1.50%
3.50%
4.50%
5.30%
0.00%
1.50%
3.50%
4.50%
5.30%
0.00%
1.50%
3.50%
4.50%
5.30%
0.00%
1.50%
3.50%
4.50%
5.30%
0.00%
1.50%
3.50%
4.50%
5.30%
*for Business Mail 1st Class only.
**for Business Mail only.
***Volume Related Discounts for Direct items are based on total daily volumes over multiple sales order lines providing all items are
posted on the same day; posted from the same posting location (site); posted via the same product and format and only apply to
Direct items (Residue items are not counted towards the calculation).
Royal Mail Contract Prices March 2014
www.royalmail.com
08457 950 950
Royal Mail Contract Prices March 2014
www.royalmail.com
08457 950 950
Business Mail
10
Business Mail
11
High Sort
Calculating the price of your mailing
Aggregating volumes on Direct selections to achieve and maximise Volume Related Discounts: In order
to reach the VRD threshold on any given posting day, and to maximise the level of VRD obtainable, you
can aggregate volumes on Direct selections in 2 ways:
Step 1:Find the full price for the items you are mailing from Table 1. If the item weighs
more than 250g, then an incremental price should be added to the full price
based on the exact weight of the item. The incremental price is calculated as the
incremental weight in grams above 250g multiplied by the gram price increment.
The result is rounded to the nearest 1/10th of a penny.
Step 2: Identify the appropriate sortation discount from Table 2.
1. You can combine a number of the same product / service level mailings onto one confirmed sales
order. You will need to show in the comments field all the job reference numbers or part jobs included
on that confirmed sales order. If you do this and then have multiple entries on a single confirmed
sales order you must link the individual lines with the appropriate Customer Reference Number (CRN)
to maximise your Volume Related Discount.
2. If you are unable to show all mailings for one day on a single confirmed sales order (usually because
mailings are at different times) you must put the same Customer Reference Number (CRN) on each
confirmed sales order and against each multiple entry. It is not possible to aggregate different sales
orders posted on the same day for any non-sorted products (Business Mail, Advertising Mail and
Business Mail Advanced option).
Any applicable VRDs are calculated at the time you confirm your sales order and will be reflected on the
invoice for that date of posting.
Table 4 – Volume Related Discounts for Residue***
Format
Letter
Large Letter
Number of
Residue Items
4,000-19,999
20,000-39,999
40,000-79,999
80,000-119,999
120,000 +
1,000-9,999
10,000-19,999
20,000-39,999
40,000-59,999
60,000 +
Step 3: Add to the sortation discount the applicable volume related discount for Direct
(from Table 3) and Residue items (from Table 4).
Step 4: Apply the aggregate discount to the full price to calculate the item prices for Direct
and Residue items.
Step 5: Multiply the Direct and Residue prices by the number of items in each category.
Step 6:Add the Direct and Residue values together to calculate the total transaction price
excluding VAT.
Worked example
1st Class*
Residue Items
2nd Class**
Residue Items
Economy**
Residue Items
0.00%
1.50%
2.50%
2.50%
3.00%
0.00%
1.50%
2.50%
2.50%
3.00%
0.00%
1.50%
2.50%
2.50%
3.00%
0.00%
1.50%
2.50%
2.50%
3.00%
0.00%
1.00%
1.50%
2.00%
2.00%
0.00%
1.00%
1.50%
2.00%
2.00%
*for Business Mail 1st Class only.
**for Business Mail only.
***Direct selection volumes or multiple posting volumes against any other sales order lines cannot be counted towards the Volume
Related Discount calculation for Residue items
A High Sort 2nd Class posting of 102,000 Large Letters weighing 302g each.
90,000 of these are Directs and 12,000 are Residues.
Step 1: The full price = 56.0p + ((302 – 250) x 0.1414p) = 63.353p, rounded to the nearest
1/10th of a penny = 63.4p
Step 2: Direct discount = 12%, Residue discount = 2.1% from Table 2.
Step 3: Direct VRD from Table 3 = 5.3%, added to the Direct discount of 12% gives a total
discount for Direct items of 17.3%. Residue VRD from Table 4 = 1.5%, added to the
Residue discount of 2.1% gives a total discount for Residue items of 3.6%
Step 4: Price of Directs = 63.4p x (100%-17.3%) = 52.4318p
Price of Residues = 63.4p x (100%-3.6%) = 61.117p
Step 5: Price of Directs in mailing = (52.4318p x 90,000)/100 = £47,188.62
Price of Residues in mailing= (61.1176p x 12,000)/100 = £7,334.11
Step 6: Total for this mailing = £47,188.62 + £7,334.11 = £54,522.73 (excluding VAT).
Trayed Mail Savings:Large Letter mailings presented in trays will save
0.3p per item from Table 5 = (0.3p x 102,000)/100 = £306.00 (excluding VAT).
Table 5 - Trayed Mail Savings
Saving per item
High Sort Letters
0.20p
High Sort Large Letters (up to 10mm thick)
0.30p
Discounts apply after all other discounts (VRDs, sortation etc) are applied but before VAT
Total tray price of mailing = £54,522.73 - £306.00 = £54,216.73 (excluding VAT).
For further information on using trays please visit www.royalmail.com/traysavings
Royal Mail Contract Prices March 2014
www.royalmail.com
08457 950 950
Royal Mail Contract Prices March 2014
www.royalmail.com
08457 950 950
Revenue Protection Fees
12
Revenue Protection Fees
Fault
Delivery Point Suffix
Specification Not Met
Applies to
Incorrect Labels/Bag ties
Sorted
Incorrect Cage cards
Sorted
Postage Stamps
presented uncancelled
Sorted
Storage costs
Sorted
Overweight bags
Sorted
Overweight cages
Sorted
Sorted machine-readable
Low Impact
Presentation errors
Sorted
Low Volume Faults
Sorted machine-readable
Medium Volume
Low Impact Faults
Sorted machine-readable
Medium Volume
High Impact Faults
Sorted machine-readable
High Volume
Low Impact Faults
Sorted and non-sorted
machine-readable
High Volume
High Impact Faults
Sorted
Minimum Average Items
Per Selection
Sorted
Fee
N/A
Per item
0.5p
Applied to
100% of mailing
£25
20p
each label
or tie used
£25
25p
each card used
N/A
STL rate
+10%
100% of mailing
N/A
25p
per cage per day
£25
65p
per Bag/Tray
generated
£25
£1.30
per Cage/York
generated
N/A
50% loss of
discount
100% of mailing
£25
N/A
100% of mailing
£25
0.1p
100% of mailing
£25
adjustment 10% of mailing
£25*
1.0p
£25
adjustment 100% of mailing
£25
adjustment 100% of mailing
100% of mailing
Prices in this table exclude VAT, which is charged at the standard rate.
*Fee applies to sorted machine-readable mail only.
Prices correct as at 31st March 2014. Please check that you are using the prevailing Rate Card. In all cases Prices are per item.
Royal Mail, the Cruciform and all marks indicated with ® are registered trade marks of Royal Mail Group Ltd.
Business Mail 1st Class and Business Mail rate card © Royal Mail Group Ltd 2014. All rights reserved.
Royal Mail Group Ltd, registered in England and Wales, number 4138203, registered office: 100 Victoria Embankment, London EC4Y 0HQ.