1. finance
2. accounting and auditing
3. billing and invoicing

Royal Mail Mailmark®
The Mailmark Adjustment
Framework
Version: 2.0 (Retail)
Issued: 5th December 2014
Effective: 5th January 2015
We are all about mail. Your mail is our business.
So we want to give you the best value for money.
To do this we need to be able to process mail as efficiently and as cheaply as possible.
We have developed the Mailmark option for your highly machine readable mail. It means we have
to do less manual processing and checking. And you gain free reporting, helping you to fix any
problems and improve the quality of your mail.
If the mail you give us does have errors, then it costs us more to handle and we need to either
correct your Sales Order or raise an adjustment charge.
The Mailmark Adjustment Framework is set out in this document and Annex 1 details the
Mailmark Adjustment charges. If you have any questions or comments regarding the Mailmark
Adjustment Framework please contact us at [email protected].
The Mailmark Adjustment Framework
Corrections to the Sales Order or Adjustments
If you give us mail that is different to what you have told us on the Sales Order, then we will
correct the Sales Order to reflect what you have given us. If we find mail with errors we will apply
adjustment charges.
Corrections to your Sales Order will be made for the following areas:
Volume Discrepancies - where our machines have seen duplicates or mail that is not listed on the
eManifest the Sales Order will be corrected or a new Sales Order raised.
Product Non Compliance – the Sales Order will be corrected to reflect the actual items processed
for:


Incorrect format
Incorrect class
Adjustment Charges will be made for the following areas:
Non-sorted mail presented as sorted
International mail items presented as domestic
Missorts 1 – items at the wrong Mail Centre
Machinability related errors including:
o Unable to resolve
o Not Machine Processed 2
o Postcode Accuracy
o Delivery Point Suffix (DPS) Accuracy
 eManifest ID is missing from or incorrect in the Sales Order




Annex 1 sets out the value of the Corrections and Adjustment Charges
How will these appear on your Invoice?
If we have corrected your Sales Order, you will see, on your invoice, a revised volume or a credit
against the mail volumes declared with the wrong format or class. You will see new lines listing
those mail volumes with the correct format or class with debits for the corrected amounts.
If we have applied an adjustment charge to mail items with errors, then you will see a description
of the errors that these charges relate to on your final invoice.
1
2
Please note that you will not see Missorts in your Mailmark reports
Where additional manual checks have proved that the volume cannot be machine processed
What are the minimum charges and thresholds?
Postcode and DPS Accuracy of 90%
With the Mailmark option there is a minimum required level of address, Postcode and DPS
accuracy of 90% 3 per eManifest. This means you benefit from a 10% tolerance on these combined
measures.
Because Postcode inaccuracy incurs the higher charge, we will count this within your allowed 10%
tolerance first before DPS inaccuracy is counted as per the examples below:
Example 1
Example 2
Postcode inaccuracy
7%
12%
DPS inaccuracy
5%
5%
12% (2% over 10% tolerance)
17% (7% over 10% tolerance)
2% DPS inaccuracy
2% Postcode inaccuracy
5% DPS inaccuracy
Total inaccuracy
We will raise adjustment
charges of:
We have given notice of our intention to increase the 90%3 threshold with time. We will provide
you with notice of any changes in line with our contractual obligations to you.
Minimum machinability of 75%
The Mailmark option is for highly machine readable mail and so we have set a minimum machine
readability rate of 75%. This rate will be subject to review and we reserve the right to change it by
publishing a revised figure on our website.
If we regularly receive mail that does not achieve the 75% threshold, then we may withdraw the
Mailmark option from your contract.
Minimum correction or adjustment charge of £10
We will only make corrections or raise adjustment charges against an eManifest where the total
value is equal to or more than £10. For example:



3
If the chargeable amount in error is less than £10 then we won’t make a charge.
If the chargeable amount in error is equal to or more than £10 in total, then we will
correct the Sales Order and make adjustments.
If we are going to make a correction or raise an adjustment then we’ll let the Bill Payer or
nominated person know. You will then see the correction or adjustment charge against the
relevant Sales Order number on the next available invoice.
95% for Sustainable Advertising Mail Intermediate Level with a 5% tolerance
Manual checks
We will continue to make manual checks; for example, checks relating to containers, paperwork,
format and class and so on. If we find anything wrong during these checks, then we will raise an
adjustment just as we do today.
What if I want to challenge the Adjustment?
If you want to challenge any adjustment on your invoice, then you can do this via the existing
processes.
For more information on Royal Mail Mailmark visit:
www.royalmail.com/mailmark
Royal Mail, the cruciform, the colour red and all ® and all ™ are trade marks of Royal Mail Group
Ltd. The Mailmark Adjustment Framework © Royal Mail Group Ltd 2014. All rights reserved.
Royal Mail is a trading name of Royal Mail Group Ltd. Registered number 4138203. Registered in
England and Wales. Registered office: 100 Victoria Embankment, London, EC4Y 0HQ
Annex 1 – The Mailmark Adjustment Framework Charges
Reporting
Adjustment
Category
Volume
discrepancies
Adjustment area
Description
Charging Methodology
Charges
As appears on invoice
• Duplicates Seen
• Un-manifested
volume 4
More items are detected than declared in Sales
Order
Correct Sales Order or raise a new Sales
Order to reflect the additional volumes
The difference in price between
the volume declared versus the
volume submitted
Sales Order volumes will be amended
Missorts
• Missort
Where mail is in wrong location 5
Item level adjustment charge
Product non
compliance
• Sorted seen as
Unsorted (Non-sorted)
Where product declared as Sorted but
presented as Non-sorted
Item level adjustment charge
Letter
Large Letter
Letter
Large Letter
Mailmark Missorts L
Mailmark Missorts LL
Mailmark Sorted Mail seen at Outward L
Mailmark Sorted Mail seen at Outward LL
• Incorrect Format
Where letter format has been declared & items
are large letters
Correct Sales Order to reflect actual
format: e.g. change letter to large letter
The difference in price between
the format declared versus the
actual format
Relevant volume credited at declared
format & debited for actual format
• Incorrect Class
Where class declared is less expensive than
class received
Correct Sales Order to reflect actual class:
e.g. change second class to first class
The difference in price between
the class declared versus the
actual class
Relevant volume credited at declared class
& debited for actual class
• International presented
as Domestic
International items declared as domestic mail
Item level adjustment charge
• Unable to resolve
Mail item where Postcode cannot be
determined
Item level adjustment charge
Letter
Large Letter
£0.132 Mailmark Unable to Resolve L
£0.165 Mailmark Unable to Resolve LL
• Non Machine
processed
Mail item where Mailmark™ barcode is missing
or cannot be read by our machines
Item level adjustment charge
Letter
Large Letter
£0.132 Mailmark Not Machine Processed L
£0.165 Mailmark Not Machine Processed LL
• Postcode accuracy
Mail item that has a missing or partial Postcode
or our machines determine a different Postcode
Item level adjustment charge
Letter
Large Letter
£0.132 Mailmark Postcode Accuracy L
£0.169 Mailmark Postcode Accuracy LL
• Delivery Point Suffix
(DPS) Accuracy
Mail items have default or missing DPS or our
machines determine a different DPS
Item level adjustment charge
£0.009 Mailmark DP Accuracy
• Missing or incorrect
eManifest ID
Bag Manifests presented where the eManifest
ID is either missing or incorrect.
eManifest level adjustment charge
£10.00 Mailmark eManifest ID missing/incorrect
Machinability
Other
£0.2004
£0.4316
£0.06
£0.37
£1.28 Mailmark Int' presented as Domestic
Please note: Charges in this table exclude VAT, which will be charged at the standard rate.
4
Please note that we may introduce a per item charge for Un-manifested volumes which will be in addition to the postage charges. We will, of course, provide you with formal notice of any new charges in line with our contractual
obligations to you.
5
Please note that under the Mailmark option Royal Mail will not offer customers the option of returning missorted items.