Royal Mail Letter Size Guide

All the infomation in one place for all your Letter Size postings  

Go here for New Prices for 2012 

   Letter, Large Letter or Packet?

The Letter Size Guide was brought about because in August 2006 the Royal Mail decided to change how our Post will be charged.

They introduced what they called Pricing in Proportion or PIP.

The Ultimate Royal Mail Letter Size Guide

This Letter size guide is the only one on the market which has all the information in one place. Including postage rates for the UK, Europe and International.

The 2 slots are for you to decide which category your mail is: letter, large letter or packet.

The first slot is for all mail in letter size, usually a DL or C5 envelope, not being thicker than 5mm. The letter MUST pass freely through otherwise it become considered a Large Letter.

Large letters must again pass through without getting stuck and goes up to 25mm in thickness.

If your mail does not fit either slot it is then a Packet. 

Pricing in proportion only affects mail posted in the UK going to an UK address. This includes the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Northern Ireland.

The slots on the letter size guide are not required for mail being sent to Europe or Internationally. This includes the Republic of Ireland.

It has the Royal Mail correct sizes plus all the Postage prices for Internal Mail in the UK, European and International rates. It also shows you the easiest way to make up the Postage rates where a stamps is not available.

To finish off there is a complete list of stamps published by the Royal Mail.

The Letter Size Guide is made from the thickest card available which has then been encapsulated which is better quality than laminated. This makes it stronger and longer lasting.

The dimensions of the letter size guide are as follows;

A4 or 210mm x 297mm

Why the change?

It costs Royal Mail more to sort, handle and deliver larger envelopes and items than they were currently charging customers to send.

Large and irregular shaped packages take up more space in postbags and vans and cost more to handle. This meant that most light but bulky items were priced below cost, whereas smaller, heavier items were generally overpriced. Royal Mail changed their pricing system to more accurately reflect these costs.

This pricing in proportion system means that all mail sent internally in the UK has to be weighed, measured for size and thickness before deciding what the postage is.

It all sounds complicated but really it’s not at all. 

The purpose of this site is to help in making it clearer.

We have a page explaining in more detail what Pricing in Proportion is and a Q and A. This will help you to get the correct postage on your mail without the recipients being charged the underpaid postage (assessed at 2^ndclass and therefore delayed) plus £1 handling charge because of incorrect postage.