As part of the price review VAT is now being charged on all bulk mail. This means that if you are currently using a Royal Mail account to send your office mail, then you will now have to pay VAT on this. If you are in a non-vatable business, for example insurance, council run gyms or an industry where VAT is only partially recoverable i.e. charities , trade unions or associations then it might be cheaper to revert to a franking account for the time being as VAT is not being charged on as many franking services.
There are a number of views as to why the service is making this radical change to the postage pricing structure. Some schools of thought are suggesting that the imposition of VAT on mail services is driven by Europe and merely brings the Royal Mail in line with the Downstream Access providers to promote competition and level the playing field, whereas others see more sinister moves afoot - harmonisation of service prior to the eventual denationalisation and postal service sell off.
Other changes that have received less mainstream press coverage relate to the change is the actual services themselves. Many old familiar services have been renamed - almost it seems in an attempt to confuse rather than assist the buyer.
For example Cleanmail could now be classified as Business Mail or Advertising Mail (Unsorted). Walksort is being disbanded as all mail centres now have the technology to walksort. Mailsort has been simplified into two categories Highsort or Lowsort depending on the sort level being used.
Sustainable Mail, one of the innovative new products that Royal Mail introduced a few years back is now only available on Advertising Mail and therefore will no longer apply to mailings which are only eligible for the Business Mail category as opposed to the Advertising Mail option.
In the Business Mail category you can now only send out letters or large letters under this heading - packets are no longer eligible for this service which means that large items won't qualify and will have to be sent using Business Mail First Class or Business Mail (not sure what the logic is here as Advertising Mail is Advertising Mail whether it's first or second class - why should Business Mail be different to everything else?) or Packetsort which has less of a discount.
As ever with the Post Office the devil is in the detail and it's worth consulting an expert about your postal needs for the coming year before you put in too much planning. Mailing Expert is on hand to help clients old and new with the changes. Please call Mailing Expert on 01825 983 033 and we'll be happy to help with all your mailing needs.
