Royal Mail drops Mailsort charges to save £17m

LONDON - Royal Mail is slashing charges for its Mailsort service to encourage businesses to use its mechanical sorting service, in a move that could save the direct mail industry as much as 拢17m a year.

The postal operator currently offers a combination of automatic sorting services, for high-volume mailers, as well a hand sorting service for smaller direct mailers, which allows them to sort their own mail for a discounted rate.

In driving down the cost of its automatic Mailsort system, Royal Mail hopes smaller mailers will be able to afford the service, in turn allowing Royal Mail to save money by eliminating its hand sorting service.

Rob Cameron, Royal Mail's head of business products, said: "Royal Mail recognises the value of its business customers, from SMEs to blue-chip companies, and this is reflected in the price discounts for Mailsort products for volume and light users."

Royal Mail's Mailsort service is being investigated by Postcomm following a complaint from customer watchdog Postwatch. Royal Mail is accused of abusing its dominant position in the market for delivering letters to favour its own mail consolidation business over its Mailsort service.

Postwatch initially took the complaint to the Office of Fair Trading. However, it handed the issue back to Postcomm, which is looking into the allegations.

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