What are Royal Mail Small Parcel Boxes?

Royal Mail Small Parcel Sizes

After introducing Pricing in Proportion for Letters in 2006 when they divided letters into Standard Letters & Large Letters, Royal Mail delayed the introduction of sized based pricing for packets or parcels until 2013 when they divided parcel categories into: Small Parcels, Medium Parcels & Large Parcels.

Small Parcel Sizes include boxes measuring up to 450mm x 350mm x 160mm (45cm x 35cm x 16cm).

Cube boxes however, can measure up to 160mm x 160mm x 160mm (16cm x 16cm x 16cm) and still qualify as Small Parcels with the reduced Small Parcel postage charges.

Postal Tubes can measure up to 450mm or 45cm to be treated as Small Parcels under Royal Mail Pricing In Proportion or PiP Rules.

Maximum weight for Small Parcels is 2kg

Royal Mail Medium Parcel Sizes

The Royal Mail Medium Parcel Size limits are for boxes: 610mm x 460mm x 460mm (61cm x 46cm x 46cm)

Postal tubes or cylindrical items can also be sent with Royal Mail as Medium Parcels. with tubes the rules are slightly different: the length plus twice the diameter must not exceed 1040mm (104cm) & as long as they don't exceed 900mm (90cm) in length, they can still be sent as Medium Parcels. To work out if your tube qualifies as a Medium Parcel: simply measure the diameter & double it. Then add the length to ensure it does not exceed the maximum volumetric of 1040mm

Medium Parcels have a weight limit of 20kg.

Large Parcel Boxes

If you have parcels that are heavier or larger than the maximum Medium Parcel size and weight limits, your parcels would need to be shipped as large parcels with Parcelforce (maximum weight of 30kg and maximum size of 2.5m and 5m length & girth combined).