Sending out poster tubes

[Robert Kulawik]

Hi Raman,

Depends on weight a little, but a tube with 1,5- 2mm wall with 2 posters in it should be no more than 280g. I use Royal Mail Small Packets, it is a £1.80 or something. Check the exact prices and services with http://www.royalmail.com .

Hard to beat that unless you require signature, or have qty to post. then you can look at any major courier and they will do you a deal. Usually you’d have to spend min. 15k/pa (ca. 150 parcels a week @ £2) with them before they want to talk to you.

Robert

[Raman Singh]

Hi Robert,
Thanks for info, Royal mail price seems good but its hard to find exact price chart for there postal tubes. I have been trying to search on there website.

I think, would need pay visit to post office.

Thanks for price idea, Royal Mail is the way to go, as we wont be doing that sort of volumes to attract big players.

Cheers, Raman

[Andrew Martin]

You should be paying around £2.50p first class post… that is what i pay for sending similar sizes in postal tubes, here is the site for the size of what you can send by royal mail…
http://www2.postoffice.co.uk/letters-pa … size-guide

Obviously the heavier your tube and its contents are the more cost it will be.

[Raman Singh]

Cheers for that Andrew.

[Gavin Conway]

I use Post Office a lot if they are less than 600mm long they go small packet post – much cheaper than standard parcel. For larger or heavy ish I use http://www.myhermes.co.uk and they are a courier company with small parcel rates cheaper than post office… personal courier deliverys.. good deals..

[Mo Gillis-Coates]

You can actually send tubes as small packets up to 900mm long as long as the width inst over 150mm..

I use royal mail 1st class recorded (I send about 20 a day) they all cost about £2.45 , it’s worth bearing in mind though, recorded delivery is not guaranteed postage, I often lose them in the post they never reach their destination.

Then I just claim the £35 insurance fee, I probably lose about 1 in 30: I can’t find a cost effective courier for delivery for these. I charge my customer £3.95 for delivery

[Gavin Conway]

Hi Mo – according to my local PO and the info pamphlet it / they say 600 is max for packet…

[Mo Gillis-Coates]

Which is quite right, but postal tubes can be up to 900mm in length as long as the length plus the diameter do not total more than (whatever the amount is) my local post office used to say the same to me and we used to have a right old argument every time I went it. They looked really stupid when I printed out the rules from the royal mail web site and took them in.

I do lots of postal tubes every day, they are all 800mm long and all go 1st class recorded.

BigMo

[Gavin Conway]

Great – thanks for that – ill look into it and get my local to give me better prices…

[Craig Ross]

I know this is an old thread but with the new price changes released today. They have launched new sizes reducing length, width and height of items and introduced two new categories; small and medium parcels.

Not sure where I and the rest of us stand with postal tubes now.

[David Hammond]

£7.95 for anything upto 10Kg next day uk mainland, and something like 80p every additional Kg.

I can send multiple parcels to the same address for the same price, rather than each parcel charged individually.

Plus they collect from our unit!

Brw we use city-link.

[Phil Moulds]

Not sure if I’m right or not but it seems like they are calling a 90cm tube (length + 2x diameter not more than 104cm) a small parcel. (In the international section of their new pricing document it looks like it’s a small parcel)

If that is right, it means UK delivery of a postal tube up to that size will be more expensive when the changes come in on April 2nd.

UK Standard (no signature):
1st class = £3.00 (up to 1kg)
2nd class = £2.60 (up to 1kg)

UK confirmed (signed for!) is an extra £1.10 (up by 15p)
1st class = £4.10 (up to 1kg)
2nd class = £3.70 (up to 1kg)

The 750g category has been removed, making it more expensive than before. I could do most things in a tube before using 1st class signed for at £3.65 so it’s gone up by 45p per tube!!!

Add the cost of the tube as well and it’s getting a bit steep!! Looks like I’ll start self insuring and just replace lost items where possible and save the £1.10 each time for a signature!

Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong as I’m rushing through this as I’m just off out and wanted to see what the changes will be. Big price increases over the last couple of years 🙁

I got the info from here:
http://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/ … il2013.pdf

Cheers
Phil

[Mo Gillis-Coates]

Tubes are classed as medium parcels at £5.65

Taken from Royal Mail web site

The following items are also priced as Small Parcels:

Parcels that measure up to and including:
Length: 16cm and Width: 16cm and Depth: 16cm

Roll or cylinder shaped parcels that measure up to and including:
Length: 45cm and Diameter: 8cm

Roll or cylinder shaped parcels larger than these sizes can be posted as Medium Parcels up to and including 90cm in length and up to and including 104cm (length plus twice the diameter)

[Mo Gillis-Coates]

Medium parcels is up to 20k

So effectively I could post a pair of 600×800 magnetics in a tube first class for less than £6

[Craig Ross]

I send out quite alot of tubes. 2in Diameter and 27" long (685mm approx).

I am really worried if I’m honest as used to pay £2.38 as we have franking. But if that was to go up by £2 per each tube, that’s alot!

[Craig Ross]

Found the information now.

From April 2013 –

Roll or cylinder shaped parcels that measure up to and including:
Length: 45cm and Diameter: 8cm
Count as Small Packets.

————

Roll or cylinder shaped parcels larger than these sizes can be posted as Medium Parcels up to and including 90cm in length and up to and including 104cm (length plus twice the diameter)

This is going to hit my business hard/clients pockets… Why on earth have they changed it!

[Phil Moulds]

quote Mo Gillis-Coates:

Tubes are classed as medium parcels at £5.65

Looks like you’re right – for international a tube can still be up to 90cm but for UK delivery they are medium parcels if more than 45cm long (17") and will be £5.65 without a signature or £6.75 with.

45p less for 2nd class delivery

That’s a £2 increase from what I was paying for a 890mm tube weighing less than 750g using 1st class recorded WITH a signature. I can’t justify hiking my prices up to cover that huge increase, Bugger!!

Do you get much discount if you have an account of some sort with RM?

[Gary Birch]

I can’t really understand what there is to stress about, just add it to the cost to the customer. Every man and his dog know that postage has gone up massively.

[Mo Gillis-Coates]

quote Gary Birch:

I can’t really understand what there is to stress about, just add it to the cost to the customer. Every man and his dog know that postage has gone up massively.

Kind of agree with Gary…… Bearing in mind I also trade a lot in this area, if your worried about £2 on the price of your postage affecting yor business, your probably either in the wrong market or too cheap….

Last year I doubled the price of my smaller products online….. I sell less and make more, so no money lost and doing less work.

[Graeme Harrold]

Check out Parcel2go.com for a selection of couriers. Used them for a while, as its usually cheaper than the post office, and they collect in most cases…..