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Increased carriage charges to Scotland if it goes independent !
Justin Aerial
Posts: 5,710 Forum Member
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How many Scots do we get on here ? In view of the upcoming referendum, are the Scots aware that carriage charges to north of the border will probably go up significantly if they become independent ? I do know what I`m talking about here because I run a business selling aerials most of which go out by carrier or post.
Carriers are notoriously keen on supplements and I reckon they`ll be only too pleased to whack one on for a semi international order.
Royal Mail are covered by the Universal Service Obligation so will send a letter or small parcel (though they did cheekily cease doing parcels deliveries last year) to any UK postcode for the same price. Somehow I don`t think they`ll be doing that after any Scottish independence......
Finally, further proof if it were needed, at the moment it costs us far more to send a parcel to Ireland than it does to Northern Ireland, thus our carriage charges to the former are far higher than to the latter. I read somewhere that it costs much more to send a letter or parcel from Northern Ireland to Ireland than it does to any where else in the UK, so surely it`ll eventually be the same to/from an independent Scotland.
Have all these pro independence voters thought about any of this ? ! ?
Carriers are notoriously keen on supplements and I reckon they`ll be only too pleased to whack one on for a semi international order.
Royal Mail are covered by the Universal Service Obligation so will send a letter or small parcel (though they did cheekily cease doing parcels deliveries last year) to any UK postcode for the same price. Somehow I don`t think they`ll be doing that after any Scottish independence......
Finally, further proof if it were needed, at the moment it costs us far more to send a parcel to Ireland than it does to Northern Ireland, thus our carriage charges to the former are far higher than to the latter. I read somewhere that it costs much more to send a letter or parcel from Northern Ireland to Ireland than it does to any where else in the UK, so surely it`ll eventually be the same to/from an independent Scotland.
Have all these pro independence voters thought about any of this ? ! ?
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I have a location just north of Berwick in mind
Can you answer my points objectively please, and less of the personalised stuff if you don`t mind. I run a business I`m primarily interested in facts, I`m certainly not "pitiful", just concerned how it`ll affect my business and my customers in Scotland. How much do you know about carriage charges......
The thing is that the Yes campaign primarily focuses on the heart, the No campaign on the head. Never the twain shall meet.
Everything the wee Nats don't like is immediately dismissed as a scare story. It's really quite amusing.
Any letter sent between England and independent Scotland would be classified as international mail so of course it would be more expensive. Same for fixed line telephone calls and mobile rates too.
The remote areas of Scotland account for a lot of increased costs of things, the English & Welsh will benefit not having to pay for services to remote areas but the Scottish large towns will end up subsidising the remote areas of Scotland so English & Welsh might find somethings are cheaper.
Of course they will be able to get out of it. Their universal post obligation only applies to the UK. If the Highlands and Islands were not in the UK then they could charge customers in the UK as much as they want and there is nothing the Scottish government could do about it.
The SNP want to renationalise the Royal Mail in Scotland, and presumably re-brand it, but it's unclear how that would be done and how much it would cost.
John Barrowman? :kitty:
If and when the carriage charges go up (should Scotland become independent), I`d like to quote them on this....
I`ve been dealing with carriers for years, they add on supplements at the drop of a hat....
But the proof of the pudding is in the eating, why does it cost me so much more to send orders to Ireland than to Northern Ireland ? The actual costs to the carriers cannot be that much different, the only thing which is different is that on is in the UK and one isn`t.
It will cost a fortune as RM can do support lower pricing through sheer volume, an independent Scotland will only be collecting and delivering 10% of this mail, so it will inevitably cost significantly more and they will have massive overheads and logistical nightmares compared to how deliveries in rUK take place in the main.
You also have companies based in England, particularly those who use their own logistics, who may choose to use their commercial acumen and add on a surcharge for Scottish postcodes, much the same as they do with NI now. They won't be bothered about keeping the status quo if they can charge more than they do now.
I have a friend who runs a logistics company delivering goods heavier than 25kg that many couriers doesn't take and he doesn't go any higher up than Edinburgh/Glasgow now as it is not viable for him to send his vans half full, so he cut back his area as the overheads versus the business reward were simply not viable.
Once the costs of everything starts going up the people in Scotland will soon start complaining that is isn't fair that they have to pay more for things than those in England. Well, if you want independence, you'll have to pay for it.
I sell stuff on Ebay and Amazon. If my postal costs to Scotland go up then I will certainly charge them more just as I do for buyers in France or Ireland.
All the separatists can say is "don't worry nothing will change" and that it is all scaremongering.
For that alone, I'd give my vote to the Yes crowd if I were qualified to vote.
It truly amazes and appals me to see how condescending some anti-independence supporters are towards pro-independence supporters.
Why? It sounds like a reasonable point, and it is never a reasonable debating tactic to call something 'pitiful' or 'desperate' just because you don't like the sound of it. Postage to the Republic of Ireland can indeed be prohibitively expensive, as it can to anywhere outside the UK, especially if you want to send anything weighing over 2 kg.
Of course freight companies can charge what they like; but no one can deny that rural scotland is a thorn in the side of Royal Mail, and that if they were allowed to offload it onto someone else they certainly would do.
Yes a mobile call from England to Scotland wouldn't be classed as a UK call anymore, would the mobile companies have to overhaul their charges to include Scotland as not part of the UK anymore? I don't really know how it all works
And yet if it was a point that appeared to support the yes campaign you'd be calling it intelligent discussion of the issues. Now that is pitiful.
But nobody is being condescending, they`re just stating the facts of the matter (as regards carriage to Ireland) and the likely results if Scotland decides to leave the Union.
I'm afraid in bonnie Scotland it is the polar opposite of that. The exact reverse. The yes voters are the loudest, most abusive and condescending by a very large margin.
Wouldn't voting because of a knee-jerk reaction to something you read online, rather than a reasoned evaluation of the facts, rather prove his point?