Growing commercial costs have impacted upon the price of postal products and services for Isle of Man Post Office customers this year.
Despite this news, Isle of Man Post Office’s postal rates will continue to be one of the lowest in Europe when they increase next month and the increase is significantly lower than the recent announcements made by other postal administrations.
With effect from April 30, changes to postage and some ancillary services rates will be introduced. The local letter rate will rise by 1p with the price of a standard letter up to 100g for Isle of Man addresses increasing to 38p and the rate for UK bound standard letters rising by 3p to 41p.
Isle of Man Post Office has held the prices for popular services ReDirect (which moves your mail when you move house) and KeepSafe (which looks after your mail while you are off Island). In addition, friends and family of BFPO personnel can, for the fifth successive year, continue to send their loved ones standard letters and parcels up to 2kg to any British Forces Post Office address (BFPO) free of charge.
In line with Royal Mail’s recently announced prices, the tariff for guaranteed next-day Special Delivery services (including Special Delivery Saturday guarantee) will increase. While airmail letters, international packets and ancillary services including Recorded Signed For, PO Boxes (for residential and business use) and Airsure (fast international service) and Parcelforce services will also be subject to price changes. These are all services that Isle of Man Post Office provides under licence from Royal Mail.
Meanwhile due to the vast majority of both individual and business customers requiring high-speed communication channels nowadays, the surface mail services (which takes up to three months), will be withdrawn at the end of April due to minimal demand for this service.
Geoff Corkish MBE MHK, Chairman of Isle of Man Post Office, said: “Price increases in this current economic climate are inevitable. We are unable to absorb the increase in costs from other partners which all accumulate to an effect on postal products and services for our customers. We understand times are hard and have striven to keep our increases to an absolute minimum.”
He added: “Royal Mail is increasing its first class standard letter rate by 14 pence this year and we are only increasing ours by 3p. Not only is our increase considerably less, I am pleased our prices will still remain one of the lowest in Europe.”
Geoff Corkish commented: “If we are to maintain our price and the service advantages we currently achieve, including our six-day week delivery service, it’s vital we continue to diversify our commercial interests and further broaden our customer base off-Island. The introduction of new products and services is pivotal to this aim, not to mention our need to bridge the gap in revenue we are experiencing. Our counterparts in the Channel Islands have reduced their weekly delivery service from six to five days. We pride ourselves on delivering a high standard of service to our customers and believe it’s important we continue to meet their expectations, we seek to avoid any service downgrades across the business.”
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