How does the international postage service work?

Svetti Arss

I always wondered how the admin/billing part of the postal service works.

If I send a package to the UK do An Post get half the money and the Royal Mail the other half? What if I send a letter to France and its handled by royal mail en route is the money then split 3 ways?

And how is this all reconciled? do the different postal services around the world charge other postal services once a year based on tonnage or number of items or this is handled by a central agency.

Standman

Nobody really knows what mysteries lie beyond the letterbox.

El Horseboxo

Yeah. When you pay a euro for a stamp to send an envelope to the US part of that goes to the USPS to handle the delivery on their side while the rest goes towards costs covered by An Post. Don't know how it's paid exactly but i'd imagine it's done through accounts and probably monthly invoices.

TheZohanS

An Post collect the fee for postage from the customer, they take their cut to deliver it, then a fee is paid to commercial airlines (by An Post) to transport the package, after that Royal Mail etc have a set fee for their part of the distribution process which is also paid for by An Post.

Victor

There are agreements under the Universal Postal Union on price sharing - as far as I know each gets a percentage of the face value of the stamp. However, note that some countries have more than one postal service (I think Switzerland has three), so exact agreements will vary.

In the example of sending a package to the UK, costs can be broken into:
Cost of stamp sales
Cost of collection and delivery to sorting office
Cost of sorting
Cost of transport

---

Transferred from An Post to Royal Mail

---

Cost of moving to delivery office
Cost of re-sorting
Cost of delivery

Hover, sending the same package to Australia will mean a more expensive stamp, a different price share and more expensive transport.

Bulk operators, e.g. utilities issuing bills, will get discounts for volume, pre-sorting their post and managed deliveries (they will be processed when the sorting machine is quiet, not Christmas week). So when your ESB bill is delivered to the sorting office it will already be pre-sorted between your neighbours. The machine can then mix it with your other post to minimise manual handling.

Packets and letters may be treated as separate markets, depending on national regulations. In Ireland, most non-An Post deliveries are in the package and signed-for markets. For a time, GLS (a Royal Mail subsidiary) was doing the USPS's package deliveries in Ireland.

Voodu Child

Also most postal services supplement their income by opening ~ 10% of parcels and keeping the contents.

orourkeda

Put the letter in the postbox and it arrives.

Once they get that bit right who cares

dxhound2005

The UPU is based on five principles. (1) For the purposes of postal communication, all member nations form a single geographic territory. Every member binds itself to transmit the mail entrusted to it by every other member. (2) Postage rates and weights shall be approximately uniform. (3) Postal correspondence is grouped in three categories—letters, postcards, and other matter. (4) A definite schedule of payments is made to countries whose transportation services are used to deliver mail from one nation to another. (5) There is a universal system of registration and compensation for loss or damage.

Capt'n Midnight

It's €0.55 for an An Post stamp



http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1138

Mini Pig 2 LEDs Flashlight White (3*LR1130 Included)
Price: $0.78 free shipping

That's €0.59 - 4c extra gets you an envelope with a flashlight and delivery from Hong Kong !

MrStuffins

Boobies

Jesus Wept

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

It's €0.55 for an An Post stamp



http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.1138

Mini Pig 2 LEDs Flashlight White (3*LR1130 Included)
Price: $0.78 free shipping

That's €0.59 - 4c extra gets you an envelope with a flashlight and delivery from Hong Kong !

Only takes about 7 weeks for delivery I hear.

Saila

lots of post men here!

RDM_83 again

Postage is a good example of the how services in with the same exact costs rip you off because they charge what the market can bear

this website here gives a good example between the UK and Germany, excuse the horrible yellow colour

http://www.rip-off.co.uk/archives/postalprices_30_04_04.htm

Saila

Saila wrote: »

lots of post men here!

They get up early in the morning!

Jesus Wept

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=catEhS8k_BU

CiaranMT

Nominee for most boring thread on AH.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LHc_mefxIo

Ponster

Svetti Arss wrote: »

If I send a package to the UK do An Post get half the money and the Royal Mail the other half? What if I send a letter to France and its handled by royal mail en route is the money then split 3 ways?

Explained here "Straight Dope"

rugbyman

sombody above finds this boring, I love things like this.

Asfaik a letter posted in Ireland in the afternoon will be delivered in the Uk next day. If this is correct, then it must keep moving quickly.

if it is posted in a pillar box i dont think its picked up till five pm ,reducing its chances. if it goes in the GPO in say Athlone are there departures during the day for Dublin,and thence to the Uk, i imagine not.

then the question is how much volume is there from ireland , does they still travel by Boat or by Air.

If by boat , departure time is about 9 pm from DunLaoire(the trad route i think for the mail train.

Arrival in Holyhead 0100, the mail has to go to a central sorting office i assume, say L pool ,Manchester, Cheshire area , and get sorted(or has it been presorted in Ireland ?) and sent on onward UK links, for am delivery , looks a bit Iffy by now, at least for first delivery.

Ok Ok so im a sad b. std to be writing this at this hour.!
anoraks are not just for wearing, they are aperfectly acceptable name.

Rugbyman

Capt'n Midnight

rugbyman wrote: »

sombody above finds this boring, I love things like this.

Asfaik a letter posted in Ireland in the afternoon will be delivered in the Uk next day. If this is correct, then it must keep moving quickly.

IIRC any letter not sorted at a local post office during normal working hours gets dumped down to the central sorting office in port laoise and this can add another day , also customs is down there so does all foeign post end up in port laoise first ?

do they still use the sorting office on the Naas road ?

chin_grin

How do they work?

Victor

rugbyman wrote: »

Asfaik a letter posted in Ireland in the afternoon will be delivered in the Uk next day. If this is correct, then it must keep moving quickly.

I'm not sure if that is guaranteed.

if it is posted in a pillar box i dont think its picked up till five pm

That will depend on how busy that box is. While many boxes may have nominal 5pm collections, they might also have earlier unscheduled collections. Bulk mail can be delivered at any time.

if it goes in the GPO in say Athlone are there departures during the day for Dublin,and thence to the Uk, i imagine not.

Athlone mails centre is one of the 4 large sorting offices in the country, handling post for most of the West and some of the Midlands. Again depending on volume, there might be several deliveries from Athlone to Dublin every day. International mail will be bagged separately by destination and dealt with as a priority and might leave on flights to the UK at anytime of the day. Dublijn has connections to lots of UK airports: http://www.dub.aero/gns/flight-information/destinations-airlines.aspx

then the question is how much volume is there from ireland , does they still travel by Boat or by Air.

If by boat , departure time is about 9 pm from DunLaoire(the trad route i think for the mail train.

Most is by air. Some to and from the North will be by road.

Arrival in Holyhead 0100,

It could be in London by early evening.

the mail has to go to a central sorting office i assume, say L pool ,Manchester, Cheshire area , and get sorted(or has it been presorted in Ireland ?) and sent on onward UK links,

Back in the day, I imagine it was Crewe, a big railway junction south of Manchester, but these days it would go direct by plane to the nearest big city.

for am delivery , looks a bit Iffy by now, at least for first delivery.

The UK has hte advantage of lunchtime deliveries. If the business is big enough, e.g. a bank, they probably get post as soon as the Royal Mail van is full.

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

IIRC any letter not sorted at a local post office during normal working hours

Very little post gets sorted locally, most of the actual sorting gets done in the 4 mails centre in Dublin, Cork, Port Laois and Athlone. Local offices are primarily collection and delivery offices, with only final sorting done, immediately before delivery.

gets dumped down to the central sorting office in port laoise and this can add another day ,

No, central sorting using machines can be much quicker and cheaper.

also customs is down there so does all foeign post end up in port laoise first ?

Outgoing post doesn't go through customs, although I imagine a certain amount of packages will be subject to security and other checks. For incoming post, I imagein only some goes though Port Laoise.

do they still use the sorting office on the Naas road ?

Yes.

orourkeda

Put the message in the box.

Put the box into the car.

Drive the car around the world until you get her.