International Mixed Mail

International Mixed Mail can be used to send any type of mail. The price you pay depends upon the weight, number of items - and where they are going. To qualify you will need to be spending more than £5,000 per annum across our International Contract Services portfolio.

We have three services for you to choose from depending on how much preparation you wish to do.

Premium Unsorted

If you want your mail delivered swiftly, but don’t want the hassle of all the usual administration that goes with it, Premium Unsorted is the service for you.

With Premium Unsorted, all you need to do is put your overseas mail in a mail bag with a consignment note. It’s as simple as that. You don’t need to categorise, count, or individually weigh it - we’ll do that for you - just note the number of bags on the consignment note. We can also apply the necessary mail indicia and a UK return address. We then send your mail by our fastest speed. We can also bill by department if you wish. With this service, VAT will be charged on the mail going to EU countries.

Unsorted

If you know how quickly you want individual items to be sent, and are able to separate your international mail by delivery speed, use Unsorted. After that, we’ll take over.

This option means you will be applying the necessary mail indicia. In addition, you’ll account for your daily despatches by counting and weighing that day’s mail and recording it in a sales order. With this service, VAT will be charged on all the mail.

Zone Sort

With Zone Sort, you proceed as you would for Unsorted but instead, you divide your mail into two selections, those items destined for the European Union and those for the Rest of World. This means that when it comes to the VAT levy, it’s easy for us to identify the mail to which this applies: the EU area only.

Delivery speeds

With Premium Unsorted all mail is sent Priority. If using our Unsorted or Zone Sort options, your mailing can be sent Priority or Economy.

All figures are in working days, except where weeks are stated; and exclude the day of posting as well as Saturday and Sundays.

Size and weight restrictions

There are specific size and weight limits for items. For details refer to the Mixed Mail User guide.

Addressing your mail

Addressing requirements vary from country to country, but we’ll help you get it right. One thing common to all, is that the country name appears on its own on the last line of the address. Best practice examples can be found in our Mixed Mail User guide.

Using a return address

Return addresses are strongly recommended. You’ll need to put a UK return address on each item – ideally on the front towards the top left corner. Make sure there is an obvious company identifier on it, such as your company name or logo. Inclusion of a UK return address is mandatory if you are sending more than 1,500 items to one country over a two-week period.

Customs labels

If you are mailing to destinations outside the European Union, you will need a customs label if you are sending anything of commercial value, goods or gifts. As for printed paper, it’s advisable to add a customs declaration even if it’s of low value, but especially if there are free gifts included with it.

Find out more about sending through customs.

Prepaid Postage Impressions (PPI) and AIRMAIL indicators
Unless you use the Premium Unsorted service, where we can apply the necessary mail indicias for you, every item you post must have a Royal Mail approved PPI in the top right hand corner. The design you choose will include the words: POSTAGE PAID, your licence number and ‘GB’. Here’s an example:

Learn more about our designs for PPIs and how to get them.

Collections

Your mail can be collected at the same time as your normal collection and taken to your local mail centre. Find out more about collections.

Extra large mailings

Even we need to have reasonable forewarning of extra large mailings coming our way. For us, that’s a minimum of 48 hours advance notice by email to hwdc.forecast.group@royalmail.com

Be sure to give us this notice if, in a single posting, there are:

• more than 30,000 letters, 10,000 flats or 5,000 packets being sent worldwide
• more than 20,000 letters, 5,000 flats or 1,000 packets being sent to a single country.