The main news story this morning on the local radio was the news that the Royal Mail are hiking the prices of their stamps by a record 5p (1st class stamps). Whilst this is a large percentage increase and will no doubt hit small businesses hard, is it really that much?
In theory, a first class stamp can be posted on Monday in Cornwall and arrive nearly 700 miles away in Scotland the next day, all for 46p! The Royal Mail has a vast army of vehicles and a massive workforce at it’s disposal to get your letter where it needs to be, and 99.9% of the time they succeed.
Let’s put it another way, if a customer says to you that the cheque is ‘lost in the post’ do you really believe them? That shows how much faith and trust we have in the postal system. With costs spiralling everywhere, it was only a matter of time before the cost of postage went up – think of it as the ‘fuel surcharge’ that some companies put on their invoices.
Let’s apply some more thought to how it would work and how much it would cost if you were to deliver the letter by hand yourself:
- 700 miles be road – at approx 40mpg that would be about £110 in diesel – double that to get back again
- A night in a hotel – £40
- Food – £20
- 2 days lost work – £?
- The stress!
Including the return trip from Scotland you are looking in the region of £250+ before you add in money lost by not being able to work, compared to 46p. It’s a no brainer.
If you are a small business owner, there is one easy way to help cut down on your postage costs: Where-ever possible send your documents via email as pdf files (see my earlier blog post). They arrive instantly – not even the Royal Mail can do that, can be replied to quicker, have less chance of going missing, and save you some money. If you take into account the paper, envelope, stamp and Ink each letter could be costing you somewhere near the 60p-70p mark.
When you consider that 46p in car these days would probably only get you 3 or 4 miles down the road, is 46p still too expensive for a stamp???
