Royal Mail
Encyclopedia
Royal Mail is the government-owned
postal service
in the United Kingdom. Royal Mail Holdings plc owns Royal Mail Group Limited, which in turn operates the brands Royal Mail (UK letters) and Parcelforce Worldwide
(UK parcels). Post Office Ltd, which provides counter services, and General Logistics Systems
are wholly owned subsidiaries.
Royal Mail Holdings is a public limited company
in which the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills owns 50,004 ordinary shares plus 1 special share, and the Treasury Solicitor holds 1 ordinary share.
Historically, the General Post Office
was a government department which included the Royal Mail delivery business, represented in government by the Postmaster General, a Cabinet
-level post. It became a statutory corporation
known as the Post Office in 1969. Most of the duties were passed to Consignia plc, a public limited company
wholly owned by the UK government, in November 2001 and the old Post Office was dissolved in 2007. Consignia changed to Consignia Holdings plc, then Royal Mail Holdings plc, the current name.
Royal Mail was not privatised in the 1980s or 1990s, and currently remains a state-owned company. However this is set to change with the passing of the Postal Services Act 2011, which allows the government to privatise up to 90% of Royal Mail, with 10% being held by Royal Mail employees. Post Office Ltd will be separated from Royal Mail Group and will remain in public ownership or be mutualised
.
Royal Mail is responsible for universal mail collection and delivery in the UK. Letters are deposited in a pillar
or wall box
, taken to a post office, or collected in bulk from businesses. Deliveries are made at least once every day except Sundays and Bank Holiday
s at uniform charges for all destinations within the UK. First Class deliveries are generally made the next business day throughout the UK.
Royal Mail delivered 84 million items every working day and had a network of 14,376 post offices with a revenue of £9.056 billion, and profits before tax were £312 million in 2006. Since that time, profits have dropped year on year – £233 million in 2006-7 falling to a £10 million trading deficit in 2007. In 2008, the BBC reported that Royal Mail's trading position had worsened to an annual loss of £279 million/yr in financial 2007. For the financial year 2008-9 Royal Mail had an operating profit of £321m, with all four group businesses in a full year profit for the first time in two decades.
In Wales
, the service carries the Welsh
name Post Brenhinol, as well as the English name. Both names are normally used on vans, postboxes etc. It is also compulsory for all Post Offices in Wales to have the name Swyddfa'r Post on display outside. Post Offices in Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland
, such as the Hebrides
and parts of the Highlands
, also display the name Oifis a' Phuist ("Post Office").
The Royal Mail can trace its history back to 1516, when Henry VIII
established a "Master of the Posts", a post which eventually evolved into the office of the Postmaster General.
The Royal Mail service was first made available to the public by Charles I
on 31 July 1635, with postage being paid by the recipient. The monopoly was farmed out to Thomas Witherings
.
In the 1640s Parliament removed the monopoly from Witherings and during the Civil War
and First Commonwealth the parliamentary postal service was run at great profit for himself by Edmund Prideaux
(a prominent parliamentarian and lawyer who rose to be attorney-general). To keep his monopoly in those troubled times Prideaux improved efficiency and used both legal impediments and illegal methods.
In 1653 Parliament set aside all previous grants for postal services, and contracts were let for the inland and foreign mails to John Manley. Manley was given a monopoly on the postal service, which was effectively enforced by Protector Oliver Cromwell's
government, and thanks to the improvements necessitated by the war Manley ran a much improved Post Office service. In July 1655 the Post Office was put under the direct government control of John Thurloe
, a Secretary of State, and best known to history as Cromwell's spymaster general. Previous English governments had tried to prevent conspirators communicating, Thurloe preferred to deliver their post having surreptitiously read it. As the Protectorate claimed to govern all of Great Britain and Ireland under one unified government, on 9 June 1657 the Second Protectorate Parliament
(which included Scottish and Irish MPs) passed the "Act for settling the Postage in England, Scotland and Ireland" that created one monopoly Post Office for the whole territory of the Commonwealth.
At the restoration of the monarchy, in 1660, all the ordinances and acts passed by parliaments during the Civil War and the Interregnum passed into oblivion, so the General Post Office (GPO) was officially established by Charles II
in 1660.
Between 1719 and 1763, Ralph Allen
, Postmaster at Bath, signed a series of contracts with the post office to develop and expand Britain's postal network. He organised mail coaches which were provided by both Wilson & Company of London and Williams & Company of Bath. The early Royal Mail Coaches
were similar to ordinary family coaches but with Post Office livery
.
. Greater changes took place when the Uniform Penny Post was introduced on 10 January 1840 whereby a single rate for delivery anywhere in Great Britain and Ireland was pre-paid by the sender. A few months later, to certify that postage had been paid on a letter, the sender could affix the first adhesive postage stamp
, the Penny Black
that was available for use from 6 May the same year. Other innovations were the introduction of pre-paid William Mulready designed
postal stationery
letter sheet
s and envelopes.
As the United Kingdom
was the first country to issue prepaid postage stamps, British stamps are the only stamps that do not bear the name of the country of issue on them
.
By the late 19th century, there were between six and twelve mail deliveries per day in London, permitting correspondents to exchange multiple letters within a single day.
Traditionally UK post boxes carried the Latin initials of the reigning monarch at the time of their installation: in this case VR for Victoria Regina
or in the case of a male regent, e.g., GR for George Rex
. This is now only applicable in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Such branding is not used in Scotland due to dispute over the current monarch's title (Queen Elizabeth II should have simply been Queen Elizabeth as there had been no previous Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom, only of England and Wales). Pillar boxes in Scotland are simply marked "Post Office". Pillar boxes and other Royal Mail Group street furniture are maintained by Romec Ltd, a company part owned by Royal Mail Group.
Contrary to urban myth, Royal Mail does not own the trademark on the colour red, but a specific shade of the colour red: "Royal Mail, the Royal Mail Cruciform, the colour red (as part of the Royal Mail logotype) and SmartStamp are all registered trademarks of Royal Mail Group plc."
was changed from a government department to a statutory corporation
, known simply as the Post Office. The office of Postmaster General
was abolished and replaced with the positions of Chairman and Chief Executive
in the new company.
During the 1980s both British Telecom and Girobank
were split off from the Post Office and sold, however the postal services section remained in public ownership as privatisation of this was deemed to be too unpopular. However in the 1990s President of the Board of Trade Michael Heseltine
began investigating a possible sale and eventually a Green Paper on Postal Reform
was published in May 1994, outlining various options for privatisation. The ideas though, proved controversial and were dropped from the 1994 Queen's Speech
after a number of Conservative
MPs warned Heseltine they would not vote for the legislation.
After a change of government in 1997, the Labour
administration decided to keep the Post Office state-owned but with more commercial freedom. This led to the Postal Services Act 2000
, where the Post Office became a public limited company
renamed Consignia plc. However, the change proved to be highly unpopular with both the public and even the organisation's own employees, with the Communication Workers Union
boycotting the name. In 2002, the organisation adopted the name of the letters delivery business, becoming Royal Mail Group plc with the following operating divisions:
As part of the 2000 Act the government set up a postal regulator, the Postal Services Commission, known as Postcomm, which offered licences to private companies to deliver mail. In 2001, the Consumer Council for Postal Services, known as Postwatch, was created for consumers to express any concerns they may have with the postal service in the UK.
From 1 January 2006, the Royal Mail lost its 350-year monopoly and the UK postal market became fully open to competition.
On 1 October 2008, Postwatch was merged into the new consumer watchdog, Consumer Focus
.
In 2008, due to a continuing fall in mail volumes the government commissioned an independent review of the postal services sector by Richard Hooper, the former deputy chairman of Ofcom
. The recommendations in the Hooper Review led to Business Secretary Lord Mandelson
to seek to part privatise the company by selling a minority stake to a commercial partner. However despite legislation for the sale passing the House of Lords
, it was abandoned in the House of Commons after strong opposition from backbench Labour
MPs. The government later cited the difficult economic conditions for the reason behind the retreat.
After the departure of Adam Crozier
to ITV
on 27 May 2010, Royal Mail appointed Canadian
Moya Greene
as Chief Executive, the first woman to hold the post.
Following the 2010 general election the new Business Secretary in the Coalition government, Vince Cable, asked Richard Hooper to update his report. Based on the Hooper Review Update the government passed the Postal Services Act 2011. The Act allows for up to 90% of Royal Mail to be privatised with at least 10% of shares being held by Royal Mail employees. Post Office Ltd will be separated from Royal Mail and will remain in public ownership or possibly be mutualised
. The government is also to take over the assets and liabilities of the Royal Mail pension scheme.
As part of the 2011 Act, Postcomm was merged into the communications regulator Ofcom
on 1 October 2011.
To cope with the additional workload during the Christmas period (November and December), Royal Mail recruits an additional 18,000 casual staff to work in their mail and distribution operations. In 2010 they received 70,000 applications for these temporary jobs, while in 2011 this figure jumped to 110,000. In 2011 a new in-house agency, Angard Staffing Solutions, was set up to recruit temporary workers. Royal Mail was accused of trying to circumvent the Agency Workers Regulations, but they denied this, saying they only wanted to reduce recruitment costs.
There are specific areas of the UK where later guarantees apply. Quality of service for Special Delivery is very high at around 99%, and has been consistently at or about this level for a number of years. It is used by a number of major businesses, as well as consumers and smaller businesses, and can be purchased through a postage account, a postage meter, or from Post Office counters.
On receiving the item, the recipient must sign for it. If the recipient is not in, then a P739
'While you were out' card should be left by the post delivery person.
Bulk business mail attracts reduced prices if the sender prints an RM4SCC
barcode
, or prints the address in a specified position on the envelope using a font
readable by optical character recognition
(OCR) equipment. There are no facilities to read addresses in these formats from general mail.
introduced telegraph services in 1870 and telephone services in 1912. It took over nearly all of the UK's municipal telephone companies (the sole exception being Kingston Communications
in Hull
) and was responsible for the resultant telephone network until British Telecommunications (BT) was demerged by the British Telecommunications Act 1981. BT was later privatised in 1984.
The National Girobank
was introduced in 1968 and sold to Alliance & Leicester
in 1990. The government run National Savings and Investments
(founded in 1861 as the Post Office Savings Bank) is also operated through Post Office branches.
Historically, many government benefits and state retirement pensions were paid in cash through the post office network. However, in recent years, an increasing proportion of benefit and pension payments have been made directly by bank transfer, leading to a loss of revenue for Post Office branches and many closures.
The Royal Mail is regulated by Ofcom
, while consumer interests are represented by Consumer Focus
. The relationship between the two bodies' predecessors (Postcomm and Postwatch) was not always good, and in 2005, Postwatch took Postcomm to judicial review
over its decision regarding rebates to late-paying customers.
The Government department responsible for the Royal Mail is the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
, however the public financial interest is managed by the Shareholder Executive
.
Although now a private company, the Royal Mail enjoys special protection under Government legislation which severely limits consumer rights. Under the Postal Services Act 2000
, the Royal Mail is under no contractual obligation to deliver most mail, including special delivery items. In addition, no court action can be taken against the Royal Mail more than 12 months after an item is posted.
Royal Mail has, in some quarters, a poor reputation for losing mail despite more than 99.93% of mail arriving safely and in 2006 was fined £11.7 million due to the amount of mail lost, stolen or damaged. According to Home Office figures from 2002 up to a million letters a week were lost or delivered to the wrong address.
The former Chief Executive of Royal Mail, Adam Crozier
was quoted on various occasions as saying that "every single letter is important."
In December 2008, workers at Mail Centres affected by proposals to rationalise the number of Mail Centres (particularly in North West England) again voted for strike action on Friday 19 December, potentially affecting Christmas deliveries. The action was postponed less than 24 hours before staff were due to walk out.
Localised strikes have taken place across the UK from June 2009 and these have grown in frequency throughout the summer. There is currently a ballot on national industrial action, over Royal Mail's failure to reach a national agreement covering protection of jobs, pay, terms and conditions and the cessation of managerial executive action. The result will be known by 9 October 2009.
Royal Mail is famous for its custom load-carrying bicycles (with the rack and basket built into the frame), made by Pashley Cycles
since 1971. Since 2000, their old bikes have been shipped to Africa by Re~Cycle (10,000 ). In 2009, Royal Mail announced it was beginning to phase out bicycle deliveries, to be replaced with more push-trolleys and vans. A spokesman said that they would continue to use bicycles on some rural routes, and that there was no plan to phase out bicycles completely.
In addition to running a large number of road vehicles, Royal Mail uses trains, a ship and some aircraft, with an air hub at East Midlands Airport.
The following aircraft are included in the dedicated fleet:
British Airways
aircraft are also used for airmail deliveries and bear a small Royal Mail logo towards the rear of the fuselage.
The RMS St Helena is a cargo and passenger ship that serves the British overseas territory of Saint Helena
. It sails between Cape Town
and Saint Helena, Ascension Island
and occasionally Walvis Bay
, Namibia. It also visits the Isle of Portland
, England twice per year stopping at Tenerife
en-route. It is the last dedicated Royal Mail Ship
in service.
The London Post Office Railway
was axed by Royal Mail in 2003—this had been a network of driverless trains running along a private underground track since 1927.
Government-owned corporation
A government-owned corporation, state-owned company, state-owned entity, state enterprise, publicly owned corporation, government business enterprise, or parastatal is a legal entity created by a government to undertake commercial activities on behalf of an owner government...
postal service
Mail
Mail, or post, is a system for transporting letters and other tangible objects: written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages are delivered to destinations around the world. Anything sent through the postal system is called mail or post.In principle, a postal service...
in the United Kingdom. Royal Mail Holdings plc owns Royal Mail Group Limited, which in turn operates the brands Royal Mail (UK letters) and Parcelforce Worldwide
Parcelforce
Parcelforce Worldwide is a courier and logistics service in the United Kingdom. Parcelforce Worldwide is a trading name of Royal Mail Group Ltd.Its international partner network allows it to extend its delivery reach worldwide...
(UK parcels). Post Office Ltd, which provides counter services, and General Logistics Systems
General Logistics Systems
General Logistics Systems B.V., Amsterdam is an international logistics company and a subsidiary of Royal Mail.GLS operates within 36 European countries, but delivers also shipments to and from all over the world through its partnership network....
are wholly owned subsidiaries.
Royal Mail Holdings is a public limited company
Public limited company
A public limited company is a limited liability company that sells shares to the public in United Kingdom company law, in the Republic of Ireland and Commonwealth jurisdictions....
in which the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills owns 50,004 ordinary shares plus 1 special share, and the Treasury Solicitor holds 1 ordinary share.
Historically, the General Post Office
General Post Office
General Post Office is the name of the British postal system from 1660 until 1969.General Post Office may also refer to:* General Post Office, Perth* General Post Office, Sydney* General Post Office, Melbourne* General Post Office, Brisbane...
was a government department which included the Royal Mail delivery business, represented in government by the Postmaster General, a Cabinet
Cabinet of the United Kingdom
The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is the collective decision-making body of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, composed of the Prime Minister and some 22 Cabinet Ministers, the most senior of the government ministers....
-level post. It became a statutory corporation
Statutory Corporation
A statutory corporation or public body is a corporation created by statute. While artificial legal personality is almost always the result of statutory intervention, a statutory corporation does not include corporations owned by shareholders whose legal personality derives from being registered...
known as the Post Office in 1969. Most of the duties were passed to Consignia plc, a public limited company
Public limited company
A public limited company is a limited liability company that sells shares to the public in United Kingdom company law, in the Republic of Ireland and Commonwealth jurisdictions....
wholly owned by the UK government, in November 2001 and the old Post Office was dissolved in 2007. Consignia changed to Consignia Holdings plc, then Royal Mail Holdings plc, the current name.
Royal Mail was not privatised in the 1980s or 1990s, and currently remains a state-owned company. However this is set to change with the passing of the Postal Services Act 2011, which allows the government to privatise up to 90% of Royal Mail, with 10% being held by Royal Mail employees. Post Office Ltd will be separated from Royal Mail Group and will remain in public ownership or be mutualised
Mutual organization
A mutual, mutual organization, or mutual society is an organization based on the principle of mutuality. Unlike a true cooperative, members usually do not contribute to the capital of the company by direct investment, but derive their right to profits and votes through their customer relationship...
.
Royal Mail is responsible for universal mail collection and delivery in the UK. Letters are deposited in a pillar
Pillar box
A pillar box is a free-standing post box. They are found in the United Kingdom and in most former nations of the British Empire, members of the Commonwealth of Nations and British overseas territories, such as the Republic of Ireland, Australia, India and Gibraltar...
or wall box
Wall box
Wall boxes are a type of post box or letter box found in many countries including France, the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth of Nations, Crown dependencies and Ireland. They differ from pillar boxes in that, instead of being a free-standing structure, they are generally set into a wall or...
, taken to a post office, or collected in bulk from businesses. Deliveries are made at least once every day except Sundays and Bank Holiday
Bank Holiday
A bank holiday is a public holiday in the United Kingdom or a colloquialism for public holiday in Ireland. There is no automatic right to time off on these days, although the majority of the population is granted time off work or extra pay for working on these days, depending on their contract...
s at uniform charges for all destinations within the UK. First Class deliveries are generally made the next business day throughout the UK.
Royal Mail delivered 84 million items every working day and had a network of 14,376 post offices with a revenue of £9.056 billion, and profits before tax were £312 million in 2006. Since that time, profits have dropped year on year – £233 million in 2006-7 falling to a £10 million trading deficit in 2007. In 2008, the BBC reported that Royal Mail's trading position had worsened to an annual loss of £279 million/yr in financial 2007. For the financial year 2008-9 Royal Mail had an operating profit of £321m, with all four group businesses in a full year profit for the first time in two decades.
In Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, the service carries the Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
name Post Brenhinol, as well as the English name. Both names are normally used on vans, postboxes etc. It is also compulsory for all Post Offices in Wales to have the name Swyddfa'r Post on display outside. Post Offices in Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, such as the Hebrides
Hebrides
The Hebrides comprise a widespread and diverse archipelago off the west coast of Scotland. There are two main groups: the Inner and Outer Hebrides. These islands have a long history of occupation dating back to the Mesolithic and the culture of the residents has been affected by the successive...
and parts of the Highlands
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
, also display the name Oifis a' Phuist ("Post Office").
History
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
established a "Master of the Posts", a post which eventually evolved into the office of the Postmaster General.
The Royal Mail service was first made available to the public by Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
on 31 July 1635, with postage being paid by the recipient. The monopoly was farmed out to Thomas Witherings
Thomas Witherings
Thomas Witherings was an English merchant and postal administrator who established the Royal Mail public letter service. He was a politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1640.-Early life:...
.
In the 1640s Parliament removed the monopoly from Witherings and during the Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
and First Commonwealth the parliamentary postal service was run at great profit for himself by Edmund Prideaux
Edmund Prideaux
Sir Edmund Prideaux was an English lawyer and Member of Parliament, who supported the Parliamentary cause during the English Civil War. He was briefly solicitor-general but chose to resign rather than participate in the regicide of Charles I and was afterwards attorney-general a position he held...
(a prominent parliamentarian and lawyer who rose to be attorney-general). To keep his monopoly in those troubled times Prideaux improved efficiency and used both legal impediments and illegal methods.
In 1653 Parliament set aside all previous grants for postal services, and contracts were let for the inland and foreign mails to John Manley. Manley was given a monopoly on the postal service, which was effectively enforced by Protector Oliver Cromwell's
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
government, and thanks to the improvements necessitated by the war Manley ran a much improved Post Office service. In July 1655 the Post Office was put under the direct government control of John Thurloe
John Thurloe
John Thurloe was a secretary to the council of state in Protectorate England and spymaster for Oliver Cromwell.-Life:...
, a Secretary of State, and best known to history as Cromwell's spymaster general. Previous English governments had tried to prevent conspirators communicating, Thurloe preferred to deliver their post having surreptitiously read it. As the Protectorate claimed to govern all of Great Britain and Ireland under one unified government, on 9 June 1657 the Second Protectorate Parliament
Second Protectorate Parliament
The Second Protectorate Parliament in England sat for two sessions from 17 September 1656 until 4 February 1658, with Thomas Widdrington as the Speaker of the House of Commons...
(which included Scottish and Irish MPs) passed the "Act for settling the Postage in England, Scotland and Ireland" that created one monopoly Post Office for the whole territory of the Commonwealth.
At the restoration of the monarchy, in 1660, all the ordinances and acts passed by parliaments during the Civil War and the Interregnum passed into oblivion, so the General Post Office (GPO) was officially established by Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
in 1660.
Between 1719 and 1763, Ralph Allen
Ralph Allen
Ralph Allen was an entrepreneur and philanthropist, and was notable for his reforms to the British postal system. He was baptised at St Columb Major, Cornwall on 24 July 1693. As a teenager he worked at the Post Office. He moved in 1710 to Bath, where he became a post office clerk, and at the age...
, Postmaster at Bath, signed a series of contracts with the post office to develop and expand Britain's postal network. He organised mail coaches which were provided by both Wilson & Company of London and Williams & Company of Bath. The early Royal Mail Coaches
Mail coach
In Great Britain, the mail coach or post coach was a horse-drawn carriage that carried mail deliveries, from 1784. In Ireland, the first mail coach began service from Dublin in 1789. The coach was drawn by four horses and had seating for four passengers inside. Further passengers were later allowed...
were similar to ordinary family coaches but with Post Office livery
Livery
A livery is a uniform, insignia or symbol adorning, in a non-military context, a person, an object or a vehicle that denotes a relationship between the wearer of the livery and an individual or corporate body. Often, elements of the heraldry relating to the individual or corporate body feature in...
.
Uniform penny postage
In December 1839 the first substantial reform started when postage rates were revised by the short-lived Uniform Fourpenny PostUniform Fourpenny Post
The Uniform Fourpenny Post was a short-lived uniform pre-paid letter rate in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that lasted for only 36 days from 5 December 1839 until 9 January 1840...
. Greater changes took place when the Uniform Penny Post was introduced on 10 January 1840 whereby a single rate for delivery anywhere in Great Britain and Ireland was pre-paid by the sender. A few months later, to certify that postage had been paid on a letter, the sender could affix the first adhesive postage stamp
Postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
, the Penny Black
Penny Black
The Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system. It was issued in Britain on 1 May 1840, for official use from 6 May of that year....
that was available for use from 6 May the same year. Other innovations were the introduction of pre-paid William Mulready designed
Mulready stationery
Mulready stationery describes the postal stationery lettersheets and pre-gummed envelopes that were introduced as part of the British Post Office postal reforms of 1840. They went on sale on 1 May, 1840, and were valid for use from 6 May...
postal stationery
Postal stationery
A piece of postal stationery is a stationery item, such as a stamped envelope, letter sheet, postal card, lettercard, aerogram or wrapper, with an imprinted stamp or inscription indicating that a specific rate of postage or related service has been prepaid...
letter sheet
Letter sheet
In philatelic terminology a Letter sheet, often written lettersheet, is nowadays an item of postal stationery issued by a postal authority. It is a sheet of paper that can be folded, usually sealed , and mailed without the use of an envelope...
s and envelopes.
As the United Kingdom
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
was the first country to issue prepaid postage stamps, British stamps are the only stamps that do not bear the name of the country of issue on them
Postage stamp design
Postage stamp design is the activity of graphic design as applied to postage stamps. Many thousands of designs have been created since a profile bust of Queen Victoria was adopted for the Penny Black in 1840; some considered very successful, othersless so....
.
By the late 19th century, there were between six and twelve mail deliveries per day in London, permitting correspondents to exchange multiple letters within a single day.
Pillar boxes
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
or in the case of a male regent, e.g., GR for George Rex
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
. This is now only applicable in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Such branding is not used in Scotland due to dispute over the current monarch's title (Queen Elizabeth II should have simply been Queen Elizabeth as there had been no previous Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom, only of England and Wales). Pillar boxes in Scotland are simply marked "Post Office". Pillar boxes and other Royal Mail Group street furniture are maintained by Romec Ltd, a company part owned by Royal Mail Group.
Contrary to urban myth, Royal Mail does not own the trademark on the colour red, but a specific shade of the colour red: "Royal Mail, the Royal Mail Cruciform, the colour red (as part of the Royal Mail logotype) and SmartStamp are all registered trademarks of Royal Mail Group plc."
From 1960
Under the Post Office Act 1969 the General Post OfficeGeneral Post Office
General Post Office is the name of the British postal system from 1660 until 1969.General Post Office may also refer to:* General Post Office, Perth* General Post Office, Sydney* General Post Office, Melbourne* General Post Office, Brisbane...
was changed from a government department to a statutory corporation
Statutory Corporation
A statutory corporation or public body is a corporation created by statute. While artificial legal personality is almost always the result of statutory intervention, a statutory corporation does not include corporations owned by shareholders whose legal personality derives from being registered...
, known simply as the Post Office. The office of Postmaster General
United Kingdom Postmaster General
The Postmaster General of the United Kingdom is a defunct Cabinet-level ministerial position in HM Government. Aside from maintaining the postal system, the Telegraph Act of 1868 established the Postmaster General's right to exclusively maintain electric telegraphs...
was abolished and replaced with the positions of Chairman and Chief Executive
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
in the new company.
During the 1980s both British Telecom and Girobank
Girobank
Girobank was a British public sector financial institution founded in 1968 by the General Post Office. Itstarted life as the National Giro but went through several name changes, becoming National Girobank, then Girobank Plc , before merging into Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank...
were split off from the Post Office and sold, however the postal services section remained in public ownership as privatisation of this was deemed to be too unpopular. However in the 1990s President of the Board of Trade Michael Heseltine
Michael Heseltine
Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, CH, PC is a British businessman, Conservative politician and patron of the Tory Reform Group. He was a Member of Parliament from 1966 to 2001 and was a prominent figure in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major...
began investigating a possible sale and eventually a Green Paper on Postal Reform
Green Paper on Postal Reform
The Green Paper on Postal Reform was a United Kingdom government draft plan to privatise and regulate the UK postal services...
was published in May 1994, outlining various options for privatisation. The ideas though, proved controversial and were dropped from the 1994 Queen's Speech
Speech from the Throne
A speech from the throne is an event in certain monarchies in which the reigning sovereign reads a prepared speech to a complete session of parliament, outlining the government's agenda for the coming session...
after a number of Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
MPs warned Heseltine they would not vote for the legislation.
After a change of government in 1997, the Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
administration decided to keep the Post Office state-owned but with more commercial freedom. This led to the Postal Services Act 2000
Postal Services Act 2000
The Postal Services Act 2000 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, relating to the postal industry. It established an industry regulator, Postcomm , a consumer watchdog, Postwatch , required a "universal service" of post to be provided and set up rules for licensing postal services...
, where the Post Office became a public limited company
Public limited company
A public limited company is a limited liability company that sells shares to the public in United Kingdom company law, in the Republic of Ireland and Commonwealth jurisdictions....
renamed Consignia plc. However, the change proved to be highly unpopular with both the public and even the organisation's own employees, with the Communication Workers Union
Communication Workers Union (UK)
The Communication Workers Union is the main trade union in the United Kingdom for people working for telephone, cable, DSL and postal delivery companies, with 215,000 members....
boycotting the name. In 2002, the organisation adopted the name of the letters delivery business, becoming Royal Mail Group plc with the following operating divisions:
- Royal Mail, delivering letters
- ParcelforceParcelforceParcelforce Worldwide is a courier and logistics service in the United Kingdom. Parcelforce Worldwide is a trading name of Royal Mail Group Ltd.Its international partner network allows it to extend its delivery reach worldwide...
, delivering parcels - Post Office Limited, managing the nationwide network of post office branches as retail outlets.
As part of the 2000 Act the government set up a postal regulator, the Postal Services Commission, known as Postcomm, which offered licences to private companies to deliver mail. In 2001, the Consumer Council for Postal Services, known as Postwatch, was created for consumers to express any concerns they may have with the postal service in the UK.
From 1 January 2006, the Royal Mail lost its 350-year monopoly and the UK postal market became fully open to competition.
On 1 October 2008, Postwatch was merged into the new consumer watchdog, Consumer Focus
Consumer Focus
Consumer Focus is a statutory consumer organisation in England, Wales, Scotland, and, for postal services, Northern Ireland, formed in 2008 by the merging Postwatch, Energywatch and the Welsh, Scottish and National Consumer Councils...
.
In 2008, due to a continuing fall in mail volumes the government commissioned an independent review of the postal services sector by Richard Hooper, the former deputy chairman of Ofcom
Ofcom
Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003...
. The recommendations in the Hooper Review led to Business Secretary Lord Mandelson
Peter Mandelson
Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, PC is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004, served in a number of Cabinet positions under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and was a European Commissioner...
to seek to part privatise the company by selling a minority stake to a commercial partner. However despite legislation for the sale passing the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
, it was abandoned in the House of Commons after strong opposition from backbench Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
MPs. The government later cited the difficult economic conditions for the reason behind the retreat.
After the departure of Adam Crozier
Adam Crozier
Adam Crozier is a Scottish businessman, and the current chief executive officer of media company ITV plc, operator of the television channel ITV in England and Wales...
to ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
on 27 May 2010, Royal Mail appointed Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
Moya Greene
Moya Greene
Moya Greene is a Canadian civil servant and business woman.Born in Newfoundland, Greene graduated from Memorial University of Newfoundland with a Bachelor of Arts in 1974, and then attended Osgoode Hall Law School....
as Chief Executive, the first woman to hold the post.
Following the 2010 general election the new Business Secretary in the Coalition government, Vince Cable, asked Richard Hooper to update his report. Based on the Hooper Review Update the government passed the Postal Services Act 2011. The Act allows for up to 90% of Royal Mail to be privatised with at least 10% of shares being held by Royal Mail employees. Post Office Ltd will be separated from Royal Mail and will remain in public ownership or possibly be mutualised
Mutual organization
A mutual, mutual organization, or mutual society is an organization based on the principle of mutuality. Unlike a true cooperative, members usually do not contribute to the capital of the company by direct investment, but derive their right to profits and votes through their customer relationship...
. The government is also to take over the assets and liabilities of the Royal Mail pension scheme.
As part of the 2011 Act, Postcomm was merged into the communications regulator Ofcom
Ofcom
Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003...
on 1 October 2011.
Timeline
- 1516: Royal Mail established by Henry VIIIHenry VIII of EnglandHenry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
under Master of the Posts. - 1635: Royal Mail service first made available to the public by Charles ICharles I of EnglandCharles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
. - 1654: Oliver CromwellOliver CromwellOliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
grants monopoly over service in England to "Office of Postage". - 1657: Fixed postal rates introduced.
- 1660: General Post Office (GPO) officially established by Charles IICharles II of EnglandCharles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
. - 1661: First use of date stampFrankingFranking are any and all devices or markings such as postage stamps , printed or stamped impressions, codings, labels, manuscript writings , and/or any other authorized form of markings affixed or applied to mails to qualify them to be postally serviced.-Franking types and...
. First Postmaster General appointed. - 1784: First Mail coachMail coachIn Great Britain, the mail coach or post coach was a horse-drawn carriage that carried mail deliveries, from 1784. In Ireland, the first mail coach began service from Dublin in 1789. The coach was drawn by four horses and had seating for four passengers inside. Further passengers were later allowed...
(between Bristol and London). - 1793: First uniformed delivery staff. Post Office Investigation Branch formed, the oldest recognised criminal investigations authority in the world.
- 1830: First mail train (on Liverpool and Manchester RailwayLiverpool and Manchester RailwayThe Liverpool and Manchester Railway was the world's first inter-city passenger railway in which all the trains were timetabled and were hauled for most of the distance solely by steam locomotives. The line opened on 15 September 1830 and ran between the cities of Liverpool and Manchester in North...
). - 1838: Post Office Money orderMoney orderA money order is a payment order for a pre-specified amount of money. Because it is required that the funds be prepaid for the amount shown on it, it is a more trusted method of payment than a cheque.-History of money orders:...
system introduced. - 1839: Uniform Fourpenny PostUniform Fourpenny PostThe Uniform Fourpenny Post was a short-lived uniform pre-paid letter rate in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that lasted for only 36 days from 5 December 1839 until 9 January 1840...
introduced. - 1840: Uniform Penny Post introduced.
- 1840: First adhesive stampPostage stampA postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
(the Penny BlackPenny BlackThe Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system. It was issued in Britain on 1 May 1840, for official use from 6 May of that year....
). - 1852: First Post Office pillar boxPillar boxA pillar box is a free-standing post box. They are found in the United Kingdom and in most former nations of the British Empire, members of the Commonwealth of Nations and British overseas territories, such as the Republic of Ireland, Australia, India and Gibraltar...
erected (in JerseyJerseyJersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
). - 1853: First post boxes erected in mainland Britain.
- 1857: First wall boxes installed ShrewsburyShrewsburyShrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is a civil parish home to some 70,000 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...
and Market DraytonMarket DraytonMarket Drayton is a small market town in north Shropshire, England. It is on the River Tern, between Shrewsbury and Stoke-on-Trent, and was formerly known as "Drayton in Hales" and earlier simply as "Drayton" .... - 1863: First trial of the London Pneumatic Despatch CompanyLondon Pneumatic Despatch CompanyThe London Pneumatic Despatch Company was formed on 30 June 1859, to design, build and operate an underground railway system for the carrying of mail, parcels and light freight between locations in London...
to send mail by underground rail between postal depots. - 1870: Post Office begins telegraph service.
- 1870: Post Office Act banned sending of `indecent or obscene` literature; introduced the ½d rate for postcards; banned the use of cut-outsCut-out (philately)In philately a cut-out is an imprinted stamp cut from an item of postal stationery such as a postcard, letter sheet, aerogramme or wrapper and used as a normal stamp....
from postal stationeryPostal stationeryA piece of postal stationery is a stationery item, such as a stamped envelope, letter sheet, postal card, lettercard, aerogram or wrapper, with an imprinted stamp or inscription indicating that a specific rate of postage or related service has been prepaid...
; introduced the ½d rate for newspapers; provided for the issue of newspaper wrappers. - 1880: First use of bicycles to deliver mail.
- 1881: Postal orderPostal OrderIn the United Kingdom , a Postal Order is used for sending money through the mail. In the United States, this is known as a Postal money order...
introduced. - 1882: Army Post Office Corps formed from GPO employees (see British Forces Post OfficeBritish Forces Post OfficeThe British Forces Post Office provides a postal service to HM Forces, separate from that provided by Royal Mail in the United Kingdom. BFPO addresses are used for the delivery of mail in the UK and around the world...
) - 1883: Parcel postParcel postParcel post is a service of a postal administration for sending parcels through the post. It is generally one of the less expensive ways to ship packages that are too heavy to be sent by regular letter post and is usually a slower method of transportation....
begins. - 1894: First picture postcardsPostcardA postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....
. - 1912: Post Office opens national telephone service.
- 1919: First international airmailAirmailAirmail is mail that is transported by aircraft. It typically arrives more quickly than surface mail, and usually costs more to send...
service developed by Royal EngineersRoyal EngineersThe Corps of Royal Engineers, usually just called the Royal Engineers , and commonly known as the Sappers, is one of the corps of the British Army....
(Postal Section) and Royal Air ForceRoyal Air ForceThe Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
. - 1927: Opening of the London Post Office RailwayLondon Post Office RailwayThe Post Office Railway, also known as Mail Rail, was a narrow-gauge driverless private underground railway in London built by the Post Office with assistance from the Underground Electric Railways Company of London to move mail between sorting offices...
- 1941: Airgraph service introduced between UK and Egypt. The service was later extended to: Canada (1941), East Africa (1941), Burma (1942), India (1942), South Africa (1942), Australia (1943), New Zealand (1943) Ceylon (1944) and Italy (1944).
- 1941: AerogramAerogramAn Aerogram, Aérogramme or Air Letter is a thin lightweight piece of foldable and gummed paper for writing a letter for transit via airmail, in which the letter and envelope are one and the same. Most postal administrations forbid enclosures in these light letters, which are usually sent abroad at...
service introduced. - 1968: Two-class postal system introduced. National Giro bank opens.
- 1969: General Post Office changes from government department to nationalised industry.
- 1971: Postal services in Great Britain were suspended for two months between January and March as the result of a national postal strike1971 United Kingdom postal workers strikeThe 1971 United Kingdom postal workers strike was a strike in the United Kingdom staged by postal workers between January and March 1971.-Details:...
over a pay claim. - 1974: PostcodesUK postcodesThe postal codes used in the United Kingdom are known as postcodes. They are alphanumeric and were introduced by the Royal Mail over a 15-year period from 11th October 1959 to 1974...
extended over all UK. - 1981: Post Office Telecommunications services split out as British Telecom.
- 1986: Separated businesses of delivering letters, delivering parcels and operating post offices.
- 1988: Postal workers hold their first national strike1988 United Kingdom postal workers strikeThe 1988 United Kingdom postal workers strike was a strike in the United Kingdom in August and September 1988. It was the country's first national postal strike for 17 years, and began after postal workers at Royal Mail walked out in protest over bonuses being paid to recruit new workers in London...
for 17 years after walking out over bonuses being paid to recruit new workers in London and the South East. - 1989: Royal Mail establishes Romec (Royal Mail Engineering & Construction) to deliver Facilities Maintenance services to its business. Romec becomes owned 51% by Royal Mail and 49% by Haden Business Management Ltd in a joint venture.
- 1990: GirobankGirobankGirobank was a British public sector financial institution founded in 1968 by the General Post Office. Itstarted life as the National Giro but went through several name changes, becoming National Girobank, then Girobank Plc , before merging into Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank...
sold to the Alliance & LeicesterAlliance & LeicesterAlliance & Leicester was a former UK-based bank and PLC, which in later years operated as a trading name of Santander UK before being rebranded as Santander. Alliance & Leicester was legally acquired in May 2010 by Santander UK, and was fully incorporated by 2011...
Building Society. - 1990: Royal Mail Parcels re-branded as ParcelforceParcelforceParcelforce Worldwide is a courier and logistics service in the United Kingdom. Parcelforce Worldwide is a trading name of Royal Mail Group Ltd.Its international partner network allows it to extend its delivery reach worldwide...
. - 1999: A new business: Royal Mail ViaCode – or ViaCode Limited – was launched. This wholly owned subsidiary of the Post Office offered online encryption services to businesses, using "digital certificate" technology. The short-lived venture was wound up in 2002.
- 2004: Reduction of deliveries to once daily. Travelling post officeTravelling Post OfficeA Travelling Post Office was a type of mail train in the UK where the post was sorted en-route. The last Travelling Post Office services were ended on 9 January 2004, with the carriages used now sold for scrap or to preservation societies....
("Mail Trains") end. SmartStamp is introduced. - 2005: Mail Trains re-introduced on some lines.
- 2006: Royal Mail loses its monopoly when the regulator, Postcomm, opens up the Postal Market 3 years ahead of the rest of Europe. Competitors can carry mail, and pass it to Royal Mail for delivery, a service known as Downstream accessDownstream accessDownstream access is the term used to describe mail which has been collected and distributed by a competitor, but is handed over to Royal Mail mail centres for final processing onto local delivery offices, where they are delivered.- History :...
. Also introduces Pricing in ProportionPricing in ProportionPricing in Proportion is a Royal Mail postal price structure in the United Kingdom introduced on 21 August 2006. It is also used on the Isle of Man by Isle of Man Post, but not on the other island post networks Jersey Post and Guernsey Post. The system has three bands - letter, large letter and...
(PiP) for first and second class inland mail. - 2006: Online postageRoyal Mail Online PostageRoyal Mail Online Postage , introduced in early 2006 is an online service provided by Royal Mail in conjunction with Lockheed Martin, where customers can print out their postage stamp online onto a label or envelope without having to buy it in a Post Office.-Purchasing:The user can...
allows Royal Mail customers to pay for postage on the web, without the need to buy traditional stamps. - 2007: Royal Mail Group plc becomes Royal Mail Group Ltd in a slight change of legal status.
- 2007: Official Industrial Action takes place over pay, conditions and pensions.
- 2007: Sunday collections from pillar boxes end.
- 2009: (September) CWUCommunication Workers Union (UK)The Communication Workers Union is the main trade union in the United Kingdom for people working for telephone, cable, DSL and postal delivery companies, with 215,000 members....
opens national ballot for industrial action2009 Royal Mail industrial disputesThe 2009 Royal Mail industrial disputes is an industrial dispute in the United Kingdom involving Royal Mail and members of the Communication Workers Union , which began in the summer of 2009...
. - 2010: Bicycles begin to be phased out due to health and safety issues, 130 years after they were first used.
- 2010 (6 December): Hitherto free services were removed from the Inland Letter Post Scheme and became available under contract: Callers Service, Forwarding, Petitions to the Sovereign and to Parliament, Poste Restante, Private Post Box, Private Roadside Letterbox.
Staffing
Royal Mail employs 130,000 permanent postal workers (2011).To cope with the additional workload during the Christmas period (November and December), Royal Mail recruits an additional 18,000 casual staff to work in their mail and distribution operations. In 2010 they received 70,000 applications for these temporary jobs, while in 2011 this figure jumped to 110,000. In 2011 a new in-house agency, Angard Staffing Solutions, was set up to recruit temporary workers. Royal Mail was accused of trying to circumvent the Agency Workers Regulations, but they denied this, saying they only wanted to reduce recruitment costs.
Special Delivery
Royal Mail Special Delivery is an expedited mail service that guarantees delivery by 1pm or 9am the next day for an increased cost. In the event that the item does not arrive one there is a money back guarantee. It insures goods between the value of £500 and £2,500.There are specific areas of the UK where later guarantees apply. Quality of service for Special Delivery is very high at around 99%, and has been consistently at or about this level for a number of years. It is used by a number of major businesses, as well as consumers and smaller businesses, and can be purchased through a postage account, a postage meter, or from Post Office counters.
On receiving the item, the recipient must sign for it. If the recipient is not in, then a P739
P739
P739 is the reference number of a standard form used by the UK Royal Mail.It notifies the recipient of a mail item that could not be delivered.-Uses:The P739 is used if one of the following occurs:...
'While you were out' card should be left by the post delivery person.
Business services
The Royal Mail runs, alongside its stamped mail services, another sector of post called business mail. The large majority of Royal Mail's business mail service is for PPI or franked mail, where the sender prints their own 'stamp'. For PPI mail this involves either a simple rubber stamp and an ink pad, or a printed label. For franked mail, a dedicated franking machine is used.Bulk business mail attracts reduced prices if the sender prints an RM4SCC
RM4SCC
RM4SCC is the name of the barcode symbology used by the Royal Mail for its Cleanmail service. It enables UK postcodes as well as Delivery Point Suffixes to be easily read by a machine at high speed....
barcode
Barcode
A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data, which shows data about the object to which it attaches. Originally barcodes represented data by varying the widths and spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or 1 dimensional . Later they evolved into rectangles,...
, or prints the address in a specified position on the envelope using a font
Font
In typography, a font is traditionally defined as a quantity of sorts composing a complete character set of a single size and style of a particular typeface...
readable by optical character recognition
Optical character recognition
Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is the mechanical or electronic translation of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. It is widely used to convert books and documents into electronic files, to computerize a record-keeping...
(OCR) equipment. There are no facilities to read addresses in these formats from general mail.
Non-postal services
The General Post OfficeGeneral Post Office
General Post Office is the name of the British postal system from 1660 until 1969.General Post Office may also refer to:* General Post Office, Perth* General Post Office, Sydney* General Post Office, Melbourne* General Post Office, Brisbane...
introduced telegraph services in 1870 and telephone services in 1912. It took over nearly all of the UK's municipal telephone companies (the sole exception being Kingston Communications
Kingston Communications
KCOM Group , formerly known as Kingston Communications, is a UK communications and IT services provider. Its headquarters is in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, where subsidiary business unit KC serves local residents and businesses with Internet and telephony services...
in Hull
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...
) and was responsible for the resultant telephone network until British Telecommunications (BT) was demerged by the British Telecommunications Act 1981. BT was later privatised in 1984.
The National Girobank
Girobank
Girobank was a British public sector financial institution founded in 1968 by the General Post Office. Itstarted life as the National Giro but went through several name changes, becoming National Girobank, then Girobank Plc , before merging into Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank...
was introduced in 1968 and sold to Alliance & Leicester
Alliance & Leicester
Alliance & Leicester was a former UK-based bank and PLC, which in later years operated as a trading name of Santander UK before being rebranded as Santander. Alliance & Leicester was legally acquired in May 2010 by Santander UK, and was fully incorporated by 2011...
in 1990. The government run National Savings and Investments
National Savings and Investments
National Savings and Investments , formerly called the Post Office Savings Bank and National Savings, is a state-owned savings bank in the United Kingdom. It is an executive agency of the Chancellor of the Exchequer...
(founded in 1861 as the Post Office Savings Bank) is also operated through Post Office branches.
Historically, many government benefits and state retirement pensions were paid in cash through the post office network. However, in recent years, an increasing proportion of benefit and pension payments have been made directly by bank transfer, leading to a loss of revenue for Post Office branches and many closures.
Public interest
Ofcom
Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003...
, while consumer interests are represented by Consumer Focus
Consumer Focus
Consumer Focus is a statutory consumer organisation in England, Wales, Scotland, and, for postal services, Northern Ireland, formed in 2008 by the merging Postwatch, Energywatch and the Welsh, Scottish and National Consumer Councils...
. The relationship between the two bodies' predecessors (Postcomm and Postwatch) was not always good, and in 2005, Postwatch took Postcomm to judicial review
Judicial review
Judicial review is the doctrine under which legislative and executive actions are subject to review by the judiciary. Specific courts with judicial review power must annul the acts of the state when it finds them incompatible with a higher authority...
over its decision regarding rebates to late-paying customers.
The Government department responsible for the Royal Mail is the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is a ministerial department of the United Kingdom Government created on 5 June 2009 by the merger of the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform .-Ministers:The BIS...
, however the public financial interest is managed by the Shareholder Executive
Shareholder executive
The Shareholder Executive is the body within the British Government responsible for managing the government's financial interest in a range of public companies. Originally established within the Cabinet Office, it has since 2004 been part of the Department for Business...
.
Although now a private company, the Royal Mail enjoys special protection under Government legislation which severely limits consumer rights. Under the Postal Services Act 2000
Postal Services Act 2000
The Postal Services Act 2000 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, relating to the postal industry. It established an industry regulator, Postcomm , a consumer watchdog, Postwatch , required a "universal service" of post to be provided and set up rules for licensing postal services...
, the Royal Mail is under no contractual obligation to deliver most mail, including special delivery items. In addition, no court action can be taken against the Royal Mail more than 12 months after an item is posted.
Royal Mail has, in some quarters, a poor reputation for losing mail despite more than 99.93% of mail arriving safely and in 2006 was fined £11.7 million due to the amount of mail lost, stolen or damaged. According to Home Office figures from 2002 up to a million letters a week were lost or delivered to the wrong address.
The former Chief Executive of Royal Mail, Adam Crozier
Adam Crozier
Adam Crozier is a Scottish businessman, and the current chief executive officer of media company ITV plc, operator of the television channel ITV in England and Wales...
was quoted on various occasions as saying that "every single letter is important."
Industrial relations
Royal Mail has been at the centre of a number of industrial disputes during its history – notably the national wildcat strikes in 2003 and a seven-week strike in 1971. By Autumn 2007, disputes began to escalate into industrial action. In mid October unions and management agreed a resolution to the dispute.In December 2008, workers at Mail Centres affected by proposals to rationalise the number of Mail Centres (particularly in North West England) again voted for strike action on Friday 19 December, potentially affecting Christmas deliveries. The action was postponed less than 24 hours before staff were due to walk out.
Localised strikes have taken place across the UK from June 2009 and these have grown in frequency throughout the summer. There is currently a ballot on national industrial action, over Royal Mail's failure to reach a national agreement covering protection of jobs, pay, terms and conditions and the cessation of managerial executive action. The result will be known by 9 October 2009.
Fleet
Pashley Cycles
Pashley Cycles is an English bicycle manufacturer in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, England, established in 1926. The company has been making bicycles for more than 80 years.-History:...
since 1971. Since 2000, their old bikes have been shipped to Africa by Re~Cycle (10,000 ). In 2009, Royal Mail announced it was beginning to phase out bicycle deliveries, to be replaced with more push-trolleys and vans. A spokesman said that they would continue to use bicycles on some rural routes, and that there was no plan to phase out bicycles completely.
In addition to running a large number of road vehicles, Royal Mail uses trains, a ship and some aircraft, with an air hub at East Midlands Airport.
The following aircraft are included in the dedicated fleet:
- 1x Boeing 737-3Y0Boeing 737The Boeing 737 is a short- to medium-range, twin-engine narrow-body jet airliner. Originally developed as a shorter, lower-cost twin-engine airliner derived from Boeing's 707 and 727, the 737 has developed into a family of nine passenger models with a capacity of 85 to 215 passengers...
G-ZAPV operated by Titan AirwaysTitan AirwaysTitan Airways is a British charter airline based at London Stansted Airport, United Kingdom. It operates contract and ad-hoc passenger and freight charters throughout the world and short notice wet-lease charters for scheduled airlines...
.
British Airways
British Airways
British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom, based in Waterside, near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. British Airways is the largest airline in the UK based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations...
aircraft are also used for airmail deliveries and bear a small Royal Mail logo towards the rear of the fuselage.
The RMS St Helena is a cargo and passenger ship that serves the British overseas territory of Saint Helena
Saint Helena
Saint Helena , named after St Helena of Constantinople, is an island of volcanic origin in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha which also includes Ascension Island and the islands of Tristan da Cunha...
. It sails between Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
and Saint Helena, Ascension Island
Ascension Island
Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island in the equatorial waters of the South Atlantic Ocean, around from the coast of Africa and from the coast of South America, which is roughly midway between the horn of South America and Africa...
and occasionally Walvis Bay
Walvis Bay
Walvis Bay , is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies...
, Namibia. It also visits the Isle of Portland
Isle of Portland
The Isle of Portland is a limestone tied island, long by wide, in the English Channel. Portland is south of the resort of Weymouth, forming the southernmost point of the county of Dorset, England. A tombolo over which runs the A354 road connects it to Chesil Beach and the mainland. Portland and...
, England twice per year stopping at Tenerife
Tenerife
Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...
en-route. It is the last dedicated Royal Mail Ship
Royal Mail Ship
Royal Mail Ship , usually seen in its abbreviated form RMS, a designation which dates back to 1840, is the ship prefix used for seagoing vessels that carry mail under contract by Royal Mail...
in service.
The London Post Office Railway
London Post Office Railway
The Post Office Railway, also known as Mail Rail, was a narrow-gauge driverless private underground railway in London built by the Post Office with assistance from the Underground Electric Railways Company of London to move mail between sorting offices...
was axed by Royal Mail in 2003—this had been a network of driverless trains running along a private underground track since 1927.
See also
- Postage stamps and postal history of Great BritainPostage stamps and postal history of Great BritainPostage stamps and postal history of Great Britain surveys postal history from the United Kingdom and the postage stamps issued by that country and its various historical territories until the present day....
- Royal Mail rubber bandRoyal Mail rubber bandA Royal Mail rubber band is a small red elastic loop used by the state-owned postal delivery service in the United Kingdom. In the course of its work, the Royal Mail consumes nearly 1 billion rubber bands per annum to tie together bundles of letters at sorting offices...
- Royal Mail ShipRoyal Mail ShipRoyal Mail Ship , usually seen in its abbreviated form RMS, a designation which dates back to 1840, is the ship prefix used for seagoing vessels that carry mail under contract by Royal Mail...
Post offices
- British Forces Post OfficeBritish Forces Post OfficeThe British Forces Post Office provides a postal service to HM Forces, separate from that provided by Royal Mail in the United Kingdom. BFPO addresses are used for the delivery of mail in the UK and around the world...
- General Post Office (United Kingdom)
- London Post Office RailwayLondon Post Office RailwayThe Post Office Railway, also known as Mail Rail, was a narrow-gauge driverless private underground railway in London built by the Post Office with assistance from the Underground Electric Railways Company of London to move mail between sorting offices...
Post elsewhere
- Australia PostAustralia PostAustralia Post is the trading name of the Australian Government-owned Australian Postal Corporation .-History:...
– created in 1901 to replace the colonial post offices in Australia - Canada PostCanada PostCanada Post Corporation, known more simply as Canada Post , is the Canadian crown corporation which functions as the country's primary postal operator...
– created in 1867 to replace the Royal Mail services in Canada; Royal Mail references in Canada disappeared after the 1960s - Guernsey PostGuernsey PostGuernsey Post is the postal service for the island of Guernsey, Channel Islands. It includes a Philatelic Bureau, and regularly issues both definitive and commemorative stamps...
- Hongkong PostHongkong PostHongkong Post is a department under the Government of Hong Kong responsible for postal services, though operated as a Trading Fund. Founded in 1841, it was known as Postal Department or Post Office before the handover of Hong Kong in 1997...
– created in 1870 to replace the Royal Mail services in British Hong Kong (1841–1870); Royal Mail references in Hong Kong disappear after the handover in 1997 - Isle of Man PostIsle of Man PostThe Isle of Man Post Office , which formerly used the trading name Isle of Man Post, operates postal collection, ancillary mail services, philatelic goods and delivery services and post office counter services on the Isle of Man.-History:...
- Jersey PostJersey PostJersey Post is the licensed universal service provider of mail service for the bailiwick of Jersey.- History :Jersey Post was established by the Post Office Law 1969, in 1969 as a result of an Order in Council which enabled the Crown dependencies to establish independent postal services...
- United States Postal ServiceUnited States Postal ServiceThe United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
External links
- Royal mail chat, a forum for postal workers
- Royal Mail official website
- Post Office official website
- Royal Mail Group plc
- Royal Mail Group – About us: Facts
- The British Postal Museum & Archive – Our history through the post
- Postwatch – The Consumer Council for Postal Services
- Postcomm – regulator for postal services in the UK
- Monopolies and Mergers Commission – The organisation of the Post Office and its letter post operations (September 1984)
- Hellmail – Covers news stories about Royal Mail and other European postal operators
- Bath Postal Museum
- Mailroom News
- Inside Whitchurch, Hampshire Delivery Office on the day it was shut (2 May 2009)