RM Tracked 48 vs using First Class
Hi,
Any advice would be welcome.
Recently our Tracked 48 service has been terrible and we have had to refund hundreds of pounds worth of orders for deliveries either made over a week late or not delivered at all. I’m considering, on our standard orders shipping them via RM First Class instead.
My thoughts are: For T48 Royal Mail say they “aim to deliver in two to three working days” whereas First Class is a “Next-day delivery aim for letters and parcels” and proof of delivery should be provided.
I know I would lose out on the fully tracked aspect of T48 but with First Class supposedly being a faster service has anyone got any experience of how RM have been handling First Class mail (specifically LL size)?
Also, I know this question has been asked numerous times so a link to a decent thread might be best but any advice in terms of VTR when using First Class. I assume if I purchase direct through Buy Shipping there won’t be any issues?
Cheers everyone!
41 replies
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
That’s correct
It’s in the VTR policy
During the strikes though, RM have said they will prioritise tracked over standard post
What value are your orders?
Seller_NoMNQDGnEW5Bx
To confirm, there is no proof of delivery for 1st class LL
Seller_j2BZBNIebhRVl
Our post yesterday was delivered by a temp worker, without a uniform and a scanner.
He returned 2 more times after delivering a large letter, once to bring a small T48 parcel and later on, bringing some catalogs and letters and to ask me for directions, apparently he couldn’t find number 8 down the road!
If the rest of the temp staff hired by RM is the same ( disoriented and unorganised), we are in big trouble.
Not only parcels are not being scanned, but I expect many will just not be delivered to the correct addresses.
Seller_dCfAyhQFxzOWn
Our RM accounts manager has just managed to get us a better price for Tracked 48 as we were using BPL 2nd class for aerosols and CRL 48 for normal items, but now we get £100 insurance, photo evidence of delivery and full tracking with Tracked 48 and for less than we were paying for standard CRL 48. It may be worth asking about it, but the rates all depend on the volume of parcels you are sending, but see what your accounts manager can do! And our valid tracking rate has already gone up from around 60% to 85% in the space of a couple weeks due to this and far less refunds from the parcels Royal Mail didn’t scan and customers claiming they didn’t receive that were sent via CRL.
Seller_87mKFKKA3Vwkx
I post all orders RM first or second class and although I don’t get proof of delivery the ones that end up as INR (whether for genuine or fraundulant reasons is another matter!) are miniscule - even when I refund these I’ve still saved money overall by choosing this delivery method.
Seller_wqciCXuQbNS4p
Out of interest, how much are people currently paying for tracked 48? With the last invoice, including surcharge, our price was a whopping £4 per parcel. We’re now evaluating the best service to use and on an order by order basis, are dropping some orders back to standard RM48 parcels.
That price to us, is non sustainable.
Seller_idCSjD35wINVo
IF I could get away from RMN completely I would. 3 years ago we negotiated tracking prices of T48 at £4.20 and £5.65 for T24. We consistently sent parcels with an average weight of around 5KG. they said it was too heavy, they didnt want them. Account managers kept telling us they only wanted lighter parcels even though they offer the service up to 20KG. They also kept bragging about the new Super Sorting Centre they were building for parcels, which is good but companies like DPD already had theirs up and running! . They Just kept increasing our Tracked prices, currently we have rates of T48 at £25.60 and T24 at £59.90. Obviously crazy prices for a really sh£t service is not something we would pay for. The old RM was struggling, the new privatised RM is a joke.
Seller_3908OE6gLdJTA
apparently RM4 is the same as first class, and you get a delivered scan mostly,
crazy thing for me with amazon is that when i use my linked account on shipstation its cheaper though on amazon my VTR went down to 65% due to non scans,
though if i purchase the same through amazon (linked post account there, and also more expensive as amazon take a cut) my VTR is always 100%, very frustrating i have to pay more for the exact same serivce to obtain 100% VTR
Seller_ae51e0CJoHqCX
To share my experience, i binned all of RM tracked and found a courier that will do postables at a great price. Check out DHL, APC, Hermes who all offer something that is competitive to the Royal Mail tracked stuff.
They will also allow you to book on a service that reflects the size bands of your parcels and you get what you pay for rather than this average weight banding nonsense.
I send quite a bit on CRL and for convenience you are better off using Amazon buy shipping for many of your services and linking your Royal Mail account so that the CRLS will keep your VTR.
Seller_oVVxrb5RSxTua
Wow I’m getting ripped off as a business customer currently paying £3.31 for RM48 (inc VAT & Fuel), if i payed as a private customer I would pay £2.85!
During the strikes I have been using Yodel Direct through Parcel2Go for £2.63, I’ll do this more even after the strikes finish.
Would it be worth asking for a better price, I only send around 250 per month?
