Royal Mail has warned that business account customers will be asked to pay a new 2p green surcharge on their deliveries.
The green surcharge will help fund the business’ decarbonisation measures.
While the surcharge won’t be charged directly to consumers, there are concerns that some businesses could choose to pass the cost on.
The changes will be effective from November 20 and end on January 7 as Christmas deliveries are shipped out.
Business account customers will also be asked to pay an additional peak surcharge of 5p for letters and 10p for parcels later in the month.
The 2p surcharge will apply against:
- Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9am, 1pm and end of the day Sunday
- Royal Mail Tracked 24 and Royal Mail Tracked 48
- Royal Mail 24 and Royal Mail 48
- Special Delivery Guaranteed Returns
- Royal Mail Tracked Returns
Sarah Coles, personal finance analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Online retailers are having to contend with rising prices on all sides, so they’re highly unlikely to take these extra charges on the chin.
“It’s going to be passed onto shoppers, who can expect to see the cost of Christmas keep on rising.”
The 5p peak surcharge will apply against:
- Royal Mail 24 and Royal Mail 48 large letters
- Royal Mail Tracked 24 letterboxable products sent by business account holders.
- Royal Mail Tracked 48 letterboxable products sent by business account holders
The 10p peak surcharge will apply against:
- Royal Mail 24
- Royal Mail 48 Parcels
- Royal Mail Tracked 24
- Royal Mail Tracked 48 Parcels
- Royal Mail Tracked Returns
- Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9am, 1pm and end of the day Sunday
- Special Delivery Guaranteed Returns
As well as these extra charges being introduced, Royal Mail stamp prices have more than doubled since 2012, when a first-class stamp cost 60p.
Here are some of the increases for the most commonly used stamps:
- Standard letter first class £1.25 (up from £1.10 – a 15p increase) +14 percent
- Standard letter second class £0.75 (no change)
- Large letter first class £1.95 (up from £1.60 – a 35p increase) +22 percent
- Large letter second class £1.55 (up from £1.15 – a 40p increase) +35 percent
A Royal Mail spokesman said: “These surcharges will only affect business account customers and are only applied on certain products.
“Christmas is our busiest time of year and we invest in thousands of additional staff, more vehicles and additional parcel sorting sites to manage around double the normal volume of parcels. Other parcel carriers already apply a similar surcharge during the Christmas period.
“We are proud to have the lowest reported emissions per parcel* of any UK parcel carrier. Our Steps To Zero plan contains stretching targets to reach Net Zero by 2040. The money raised through the Green surcharge will help fund decarbonisation measures in our network.”
