This is a warning that the Royal Mail is clamping down on the use of the Business Response Service for the return of patient specimens. The Royal Mail indicate that this is the result of costs of providing the service and the risk of breakage of the items once they are processed through our letters sorting machines.
There is a requirement to migrate to the Tracked Return service to provide a solution for such items. As you may anticipate this service is considerably more expensive although these are not formal quotes I am expecting the cost to increase from £0.85 to £2.15 for the 48 hour service a massive % increase.
The Royal Mails response is that the service has the benefit of being tracked through the network and enhanced management information that they will share with us.
My difficulty is I have no idea when a sample is posted so any tracking is of no practical benefit to me and I have no requirement for additional management information. The other issue is all the samples have a unique bar code so the preparation of the material for dispatch becomes more complex.
I am using the service for the return of FIT collection devices; Royal Mail acknowledge that these are exempt from the PI650 regulation and do not require UN3373 packing which makes this requirement even more difficult to understand. The collection devices are designed to withstand high pressure and the buffer deactivates any pathogens in the sample. These samples also go through the system as large letters and as a consequence to not go thorough the standard letter sorting machines.
If you do not engage with Royal Mail they may suspend your current licence/fine you £3.50 for each item you continue to send and after 30 days they will increase the cost of the business return service to the track returned service.
I assume that people are using the business return service for other sample types and applications. To me this has been an additional problem to deal with during the current pandemic; some people may feel it is a monopoly provider using this as an opportunity to push this through now.
If anybody wishes to respond directly to my please use [log in to unmask]
Paul
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