Royal Mail

Last updated

Royal Mail Group Limited
Royal Mail
Native name
 Welsh: Post Brenhinol [a]
Formerly
  • Consignia PLC (2001–2002)
  • Royal Mail Group PLC (2002–2007)
Company type Subsidiary
Industry
Founded1516 (1516) (Master of Posts)
31 July 1635 (1635-07-31) (public service)
29 December 1660 (1660-12-29) (Post Office Act 1660)
Founder Henry VIII
Headquarters London, United Kingdom
Area served
United Kingdom
Key people
Services
Parent International Distribution Services
Subsidiaries
  • eCourier
  • StoreFeeder
  • Intersoft Systems & Programming
Website royalmail.com

The Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels). The company used the name Consignia for a brief period in the early 2000s but changed it afterwards. [2]

Contents

The company provides mail collection and delivery services throughout the UK. Letters and parcels are deposited in post or parcel boxes, or are collected in bulk from businesses and transported to Royal Mail sorting offices. Royal Mail owns and maintains the UK's distinctive and iconic red pillar boxes, first introduced in 1852 (12 years after the first postage stamp, Penny Black), and other post boxes, many of which bear the royal cypher of the reigning monarch at the date of manufacture. [3] Deliveries are made at least once every day except Sundays and bank holidays at uniform charges for all UK destinations. Royal Mail generally aims to make first class deliveries the next business day throughout the nation. [4]

For most of its history, the Royal Mail was a public service, operating as a government department or public corporation. Following the Postal Services Act 2011, [5] [6] a majority of the shares in Royal Mail Limited, now known as International Distribution Services, were floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2013. [7]

History

The Louth-London Royal Mail, by Charles Cooper Henderson, 1820 Charles Cooper Henderson - Mail Coaches on the Road- the Louth-London Royal Mail progressing at Speed - Google Art Project.jpg
The Louth-London Royal Mail, by Charles Cooper Henderson, 1820
Edinburgh and London Royal Mail, by Jacques-Laurent Agasse James Jacques Laurent Agasse (attr) Edinburgh and London Royal Mail.jpg
Edinburgh and London Royal Mail, by Jacques-Laurent Agasse
Lower Edmonton Royal Mail sorting office, in London Lower Edmonton Sorting Office, London - DSC06936.JPG
Lower Edmonton Royal Mail sorting office, in London

The Royal Mail can trace its history back to 1516, when Henry VIII established a "Master of the Posts", [8] a position that was renamed "Postmaster General" in 1710. [9]

Upon his accession to the throne of England at the Union of the Crowns in 1603, James VI moved his court to London. One of his first acts from London was to establish the royal postal service between London and Edinburgh, in an attempt to retain control over the Scottish Privy Council. [10]

A Government Office

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. [11]

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). [12] To keep his monopoly in those troubled times Prideaux improved efficiency and used both legal impediments and illegal methods. [12] [13]

In 1653, Parliament set aside all previous grants for postal services, and contracts were let for the inland and foreign mails to John Manley. [12] 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, best known to history as Cromwell's spymaster general. Previous English governments had tried to prevent conspirators from 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", which created one monopoly Post Office for the whole territory of the Commonwealth. [13] [14] The first Postmaster General was appointed in 1661, and a seal was first fixed to the mail. [15]

Post Office Act 1660
Act of Parliament
Coat of Arms of England (1660-1689).svg
Parliament of England
Long title An Act for Erecting and Establishing a Post Office.
Citation 12 Cha. 2. c. 35
Dates
Royal assent 29 December 1660
Repealed28 July 1863
Other legislation
Repealed by Statute Law Revision Act 1863
Status: Repealed
Text of statute as originally enacted

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 under the Post Office Act 1660 (12 Cha. 2. c. 35). [16]

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. [17] 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. [18]

The first mail coach ran in 1784, operating between Bristol and London. [19] Delivery staff received uniforms for the first time in 1793, and the Post Office Investigation Branch was established. The first mail train ran in 1830, on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The Post Office's money order system was introduced in 1838. [20]

Uniform penny postage

Royal Mail Post Office Regulations handbill giving details of the Uniform Penny Post, dated 7 January 1840 UPP POreg handbill 1840jan7.png
Royal Mail Post Office Regulations handbill giving details of the Uniform Penny Post, dated 7 January 1840

In December 1839, the first substantial reform started when postage rates were revised by the short-lived Uniform Fourpenny Post. [21]

Rowland Hill, an English teacher, inventor and social reformer, became disillusioned with the postal service, and wrote a paper proposing reforms that resulted in an approach that would go on to change not only the Royal Mail, but also be copied by postal services around world. His proposal was refused at the first attempt, but he overcame the political obstacles, and was appointed to implement and develop his ideas. He realised that many small purchases would fund the organisation and implemented this by changing it from a receiver-pays to a sender-pays system. This was used as the model for other postal services around the world, but also spilled over to the modern-day crowd-funding approach. [22]

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. [23] 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, which was available for use from 6 May the same year. [24] Other innovations were the introduction of pre-paid William Mulready designed postal stationery letter sheets and envelopes. [25]

As Britain was the first country to issue prepaid postage stamps, [24] British stamps are the only stamps that do not bear the name of the country of issue on them. [26]

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. [27]

The first trial of the London Pneumatic Despatch Company was made in 1863, sending mail by underground rail between postal depots. The Post Office began its telegraph service in 1870. [28]

Pillar boxes

London Ornate pillar box.jpg
Pillar box dating from the reign of Queen Victoria
Clackmannan Original GR VI Wall Post Box Still in use.jpg
Royal Mail GR VI cast iron wall postbox in Clackmannan, Scotland still in use

The first Post Office pillar box was erected in 1852 in Jersey. Pillar boxes were introduced in mainland Britain the following year. [29] British pillar boxes traditionally carry the Latin initials of the reigning monarch at the time of their installation, for example: VR for Victoria Regina or GR for Georgius Rex. Such branding was not used in Scotland for most of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, due to a dispute over the monarch's title: some Scottish nationalists argue that Queen Elizabeth II should have simply been Queen Elizabeth, as there had been no previous Queen Elizabeth of Scotland or of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Elizabeth I was only Queen of the pre-1707 Kingdom of England). The dispute involved vandalism and attacks on pillar and post boxes introduced in Scotland which displayed EIIR. To avoid the issue, pillar boxes in Scotland were either marked 'Post Office' or used the Scots Crown. [30]

A national telephone service was opened by the Post Office in 1912. In 1919, the first international airmail service was developed by Royal Engineers (Postal Section) and Royal Air Force. The London Post Office Railway was opened in 1927. [31]

In 1941, an airgraph service was 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). [32]

Postcodes were extended across Great Britain and Northern Ireland between 1959 and 1974. [33] The two-class postal system was introduced in 1968, using first-class and second-class services. The Post Office opened the National Giro Bank that year. [34]

Statutory corporation

Under the Post Office Act 1969 the General Post Office 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. [35] In 1971, postal services in Great Britain were suspended for two months between January and March as the result of a national postal strike over a pay claim. [36]

British Telecom was separated from the Post Office in 1980, and emerged as an independent business in 1981. In 1986 the Post Office was subdivided into four businesses: Royal Mail Letters, Royal Mail Parcels, Post Office Counters and the National Girobank. Girobank was sold to Alliance & Leicester in 1990, but the remaining business continued under public ownership as privatisation of this was deemed to be too unpopular. That same year, Royal Mail Parcels was rebranded as Parcelforce as part of an attempt to compete with international courier firms, which were fast expanding into the European market. [37]

Postal workers held their first national strike for 17 years in 1988, after walking out over bonuses being paid to recruit new workers in London and the South East. Royal Mail established Romec (Royal Mail Engineering & Construction) in 1989 to deliver facilities maintenance services to its business. Romec was 51% owned by Royal Mail, and 49% by Haden Building Management Ltd, which became Balfour Beatty WorkPlace and is now Cofely UK, part of GDF Suez in a joint venture. [38]

In the 1990s the President of the Board of Trade, Michael Heseltine, began to look again at privatisation, and eventually a Green Paper on Postal Reform was published in May 1994, outlining various possible options. The ideas, however, proved controversial, and were dropped from the 1994 Queen's Speech after a number of Conservative MPs warned Heseltine that they would not vote for the legislation. [39]

The Post Office had its headquarters in St. Martin's Le Grand, in the City of London, until 1984. Then the headquarters division moved out to 33 Grosvenor Place (lately vacated by British Steel). [40] After 1986 separate headquarters were established elsewhere for each of the three subdivisions of the Post Office, leaving a much reduced corporate head office (with just thirty staff) who in 1990 moved to 30 St James's Square; two years later it was again moved, to be co-located with the Letters head office in Royal Mail House (148 Old Street). [41]

Public Limited Company

After a change of government in 1997, the Labour government decided to keep the Post Office state-owned, but with more commercial freedom. This led to the Postal Services Act 2000, whereby the Post Office became a public limited company in which the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry owned 50,004 ordinary shares plus 1 special share, and the Treasury Solicitor held 1 ordinary share. [42] The company was renamed Consignia Public Limited Company in 2001, [43] a name that was invented by the consultancy company Dragon Brands, [44] and the new name was intended to show that the company did more than deliver mail; however, the change was very unpopular with both the general public and employees. The Communication Workers Union (CWU) boycotted the name, and the following year, it was announced that the company would be renamed Royal Mail Group plc. [45] Use of the Post Office brand was afterwards restricted to the counters business ('Post Office Counters Ltd' since 1987), which was duly renamed Post Office Limited; it continued to operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Royal Mail Group plc until 2012, when the two were separated in preparation for the latter's privatisation. [46]

In 1998, Royal Mail launched RelayOne as an email to postal service system. [47] In 1999, Royal Mail launched a short-lived e-commerce venture, ViaCode Limited, aimed at providing encrypted online communications services. [48] However, it failed to make a profit and closed in 2002. [49]

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 Britain. [50] Postwatch was abolished in 2008 [51] and merged with Energywatch to form Consumer Focus, [52] with Postcomm also being abolished in 2011. [53]

In 2004, the second daily delivery was scrapped in an effort to reduce costs and improve efficiency, meaning a later single delivery would be made. [54] The same year, the travelling post office mail trains were also axed. [55] In 2005, Royal Mail signed a contract with GB Railfreight to operate an overnight rail service between London and Scotland (carrying bulk mail, and without any on-train sorting); this was later followed by a London-Newcastle service. [56]

London's largest sorting office, Mount Pleasant Mount Pleasant postal sorting office 2.jpg
London's largest sorting office, Mount Pleasant

On 1 January 2006, the Royal Mail lost its 350-year monopoly, and the British postal market became fully open to competition. [57] Competitors were allowed to collect and sort mail, and pass it to Royal Mail for delivery, a service known as downstream access. Royal Mail introduced Pricing in Proportion (PiP) for first and second class inland mail, whereby prices are affected by the size as well as weight of items. It also introduced an online postage service, allowing customers to pay for postage online. [58]

In 2007, the Royal Mail Group plc became Royal Mail Group Ltd, in a slight change of legal status. Royal Mail ended Sunday collections from pillar boxes that year. [59]

On 1 October 2008, Postwatch was merged into the new consumer watchdog Consumer Focus. [60]

In 2008, due to a continuing fall in mail volumes, the government commissioned an independent review of the postal services sector by Richard Hooper CBE, the former deputy chairman of Ofcom. The recommendations in the Hooper Review led 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. [61]

After the departure of Adam Crozier to ITV plc on 27 May 2010, Royal Mail appointed Canadian Moya Greene as chief executive, [62] the first woman to hold the post. [63]

On 6 December 2010, a number of paid-for services including Admail, post office boxes and private post boxes were removed from the Inland Letter Post Scheme (ILPS) and became available under contract. Several free services, including petitions to parliament and the sovereign, and poste restante, were removed from the scheme. [64]

A Royal Mail Peugeot Partner van, seen in Wymondham in 2021 Royal Mail Van.jpg
A Royal Mail Peugeot Partner van, seen in Wymondham in 2021

Privatisation

A new holding company, Royal Mail Limited, was established in September 2013, in anticipation of its initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange. [65] Applications for members of the public to buy shares opened on 27 September 2013, [66] ahead of the company's listing on the London Stock Exchange on 15 October 2013. [67]

During its annual general meeting on 20 July 2022, the company announced that the holding company responsible for both Royal Mail and GLS would change its name to International Distributions Services. It was also suggested that the board of directors may look to separate GLS in order to distance the profitable company from Royal Mail, which were in negotiations with the CWU over both pay and future changes to ways of working. [68] The name change was filled in the Companies House on 28 September 2022 and registered on 3 October. [69] In March 2023, talks over pay were reportedly at collapse. [70]

Services

Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre, where mail entering and leaving the United Kingdom is sorted Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre, Langley - geograph.org.uk - 25759.jpg
Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre, where mail entering and leaving the United Kingdom is sorted

Universal service

Royal Mail is required by law to maintain the universal service, whereby items of a specific size [71] can be sent to any location within the United Kingdom for a fixed price, not affected by distance. The Postal Services Act 2011 guaranteed that Royal Mail would continue to provide the universal service until at least 2021. [72]

Special Delivery

Royal Mail Special Delivery is an expedited mail service that guarantees delivery by 1 p.m. or 9 a.m. the next day for an increased cost. In the event that the item does not arrive on time, there is a money back guarantee. It insures goods to the value of £50 for 9 a.m. or £750 for 1 p.m. An extra fee can be paid to extend the insurance coverage to up to £2,500 (for either service). [73] [74]

Business services

Automated post sorting machine BLW Automated postal sorting equipment (2).jpg
Automated post sorting machine

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. [75]

Bulk business mail, using Mailmark technology, [76] attracts reduced prices of up to 32%, [77] if the sender prints an RM4SCC barcode, or prints the address formatted in a specific way in a font readable by RM optical character recognition (OCR) equipment. [78]

Prohibited goods

Royal Mail will not carry a number of items which it says could be dangerous for its staff or vehicles. Additionally, a list of 'restricted' items can be posted subject to conditions. Prohibited goods include alcoholic, corrosive or flammable liquids or solids, gases, controlled drugs, indecent or offensive materials, and human and animal remains. [79]

In 2004, Royal Mail applied to the then postal regulator Postcomm to ban the carriage of sporting firearms, saying they caused disruption to the network, that a ban would assist police with firearms control, and that ease of access meant the letters network was a target of criminals. Postcomm issued a consultation on the proposed changes in December 2004, to which 62 people and organisations responded. [80]

In June 2005, Postcomm decided to refuse the application on the grounds that Royal Mail had not provided sufficient evidence that carrying firearms caused undue disruption or that a ban would reduce the number of illegal weapons. It also said that a ban would cause unnecessary hardship to individuals and businesses. [81]

In August 2012, Royal Mail again attempted to prohibit the carriage of all firearms, air rifles and air pistols from 30 November 2012. It cited section 14(1) of the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988 (c. 45), which requires carriers of firearms to "take reasonable precautions" for their safe custody and argued that to comply would involve disproportionate cost. A Royal Mail public consultation document on the changes said: "We expect the impact on customers to be minimal". [82]

The proposals provoked a large negative response, following a campaign led by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, backed by numerous shooting-related websites and organisations. A total of 1,458 people gave their views in emails and letters sent to Royal Mail. An online petition opposing the proposals was signed by 2,236 people, 1,742 of whom added comments. In the face of such opposition, Royal Mail dropped the proposals in December 2012. [83]

Unaddressed promotional mail delivery

Royal Mail's "Door to door" service provides delivery of leaflets, brochures, catalogues and other print materials to groups of domestic and business addresses selected by postcode. Such deliveries are made by the mail carrier together as part of the daily round. [84] Companies using the "Door to door" service include Virgin Media, BT, Sky, Talk Talk, Farmfoods, Domino's Pizza, Direct Line and Morrisons. [85] In 2005, the service delivered 3.3 billion items. [86]

The "Door to door" service does not use the UK Mailing Preference Service; instead, Royal Mail operates its own opt-out database. [87] Warnings about missing government communications given by Royal Mail to customers opting out of their service have been criticised by customers and consumer groups. [86] Clarification given by the company in June 2015 explained that election communications and unaddressed government mail would be delivered to customers even if they had opted out. [85]

Staffing

Royal Mail postman with bicycle in Ilminster Royal mail bicycle messenger Ilminster.JPG
Royal Mail postman with bicycle in Ilminster

As of 2019, Royal Mail employed around 162,000 permanent postal workers, of which 143,000 were UK based roles, and 90,000 were postmen and women. [88] An additional 18,000 casual workers were employed during November and December to assist with the additional Christmas post. [89]

In 2011, Royal Mail established an in-house agency, Angard Staffing Solutions, to recruit temporary workers. Royal Mail was accused of trying to circumvent the Agency Workers Regulations, but denied this, saying they only wanted to reduce recruitment costs. [90] In January 2012 it was reported that Angard had failed to pay a number of workers for several weeks. [91]

Royal Mail's industrial disputes include a seven-week strike in 1971 after a dispute over pay and another strike in 1988 due to bonuses being paid to new staff recruited in London and the South East. [92]

Royal Mail suffered national wildcat strikes over pay and conditions in 2003. [93] In Autumn 2007, disputes over modernisation began to escalate into industrial action. [94] In mid October the CWU and Royal Mail agreed a resolution to the dispute. [95]

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, potentially affecting Christmas deliveries. [96] The action was postponed less than 24 hours before staff were due to walk out. [97]

Localised strikes took place across the UK from June 2009 and grew in frequency throughout the summer. In September 2009 the CWU opened a national ballot for industrial action [98] [99] 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 ballot was passed in October, causing a number of two- and three-day strikes. [100]

There were several strikes in 2022. They ended in July 2023 after workers agreed to a three-year pay deal. Seventy-six per cent of union members voted in favour of the agreement, which included a ten per cent salary increase and a one-off lump sum of five-hundred pounds, in a ballot with a sixty-seven per cent turnout. [101]

Royal Mail Group have lost 59 employment tribunals since 2017 [102]

Penny Post Credit Union

Penny Post Credit Union Limited is a savings and loans co-operative established by a joint project with the CWU in 1996, as Royal Mail Wolverhampton and District Employees Credit Union, it became Royal Mail (West) Credit Union in 2000, before adopting the present name in 2001. [103] Based at the North West Midlands Mail Centre, it is a member of the Association of British Credit Unions Limited. [104]

The credit union is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the PRA. Ultimately, like the banks and building societies, members' savings are protected against business failure by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. [105]

Senior leadership

Former chairmen

The position of chairman was established in 1969, after enactment of the Post Office Act 1969. Prior to this, the chairman's duties were performed by the Postmaster General of the United Kingdom.

Former chief executives

Regulation

The Royal Mail is regulated by Ofcom, while consumer interests are represented by the Citizens Advice Bureau. 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. [126]

Royal Mail has, in some quarters, a poor reputation for losing mail despite its claims that more than 99.93% of mail arrives safely and in 2006 was fined £11.7 million due to the amount of mail lost, stolen or damaged. [127] In the first three months of 2011, around 120,000 letters were lost. [128]

In July 2012 Ofcom consulted on a scheme proposed by Royal Mail to alter its delivery obligations to allow larger postal items to be left with neighbours rather than returning them to a Royal Mail office to await collection. The scheme was presented as offering consumers greater choice for receiving mail when not at home, that is if Royal Mail deliver items as per their stated contractual obligations and was said to follow Royal Mail research from a 'delivery to neighbour' trial across six areas of the UK that showed widespread consumer satisfaction. [129] In a statement dated 27 September 2012, Ofcom announced it would approve the scheme after noting that more goods were being purchased over the internet and that Royal Mail's competitors were permitted to leave undelivered items with neighbours. [130] People who do not wish to have parcels left with neighbours, or to receive those of others, can opt out by displaying a free opt-out sticker near their letterbox. Royal Mail remains liable for undeliverable items until they are received by the addressee or returned to sender. [131]

Ofcom suggested in October 2012 that the first and second class post systems could be replaced by a single class. The new class would be set at a higher price than the current second class, but would be delivered in a shorter time-frame. [132]

Royal Mail was fined £50 million by Ofcom in 2018 for breach of European Union competition law. Ofcom found that Royal Mail had abused its dominant position in 2014 in the delivery of letters. [133]

As of December 2023, Royal Mail has been fined a total of £58,303,936 for regulatory breaches according to the Violation Tracker UK website. [102]

Operations

The targets are delivering 93% of First Class post the next working day, and delivering 98.5% of Second Class post within three working days. [134]

Mail centres

North West Midlands Mail Centre Royal Mail Northwest Midlands Mail Centre - geograph.org.uk - 272563.jpg
North West Midlands Mail Centre
Southampton Mail Centre Royal Mail's Southampton Mail Centre, Eastleigh - geograph.org.uk - 502096.jpg
Southampton Mail Centre

Royal Mail operates a network of 37 mail centres (as of 2019). [135] Each mail centre serves a large geographically defined area of the UK and together they form the backbone network of the mail distribution operation. Mail is collected and brought to one of the mail centres. Mail is exchanged between the mail centres and then forwarded to one of 1,356 delivery offices, from where the final delivery is made. [136]

Mail from third-party "downstream access" providers is also brought to the mail centres for Royal Mail to carry out the final delivery. Ofcom restricts the prices at which Royal Mail sell this downstream access to third-party companies. [137]

As part of the sorting process, mail is collected from pillar boxes, Post Office branches and businesses, and brought to the regional mail centre. The process is divided into two parts. The 'outward' sorting identifies mail for delivery in the mail centre geographic area, which is retained, and mail intended for other mail centres, which is dispatched. The 'inward' sorting forwards mail received from other centres to the relevant delivery offices within the mail centre area. [136]

Integrated mail processing

Integrated mail processing (IMP) is the method that Royal Mail uses to sort the mail (in bulk) before delivery and has been implementing the technology since 1999. [138] The system works by automated optical character recognition of postcodes. Integrated mail processors scan the front and back of an envelope and translate addresses into machine-readable code. Letters are given a fluorescent orange barcode that represents the address. The barcode follows the RM4SCC pattern. Per mail item there are over 250 types of information that are collected from mail class to indicia type. Some scanning and detection features have been removed as they have been superseded by newer technology. This is known as the IMP Extension of Life (EoL) program. [139] [140]

Intelligent letter sorting machines

Royal Mail operates 66 intelligent letter sorting machines (ILSMs) in the UK, which were installed in the mid-1980s and early 1990s to improve the speed and efficiency of sorting and delivering mail. These process more than 36,000 items per hour and were part of their ongoing modernisation programme that commenced in the early 1980s. [141]

International mail

Royal Mail operates an international-mail sorting centre, in Langley, Berkshire close to Heathrow Airport, called the Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre, which handles all international airmail arriving into and leaving the United Kingdom, plus some container- and road-transported mail. [142]

List of mail centres

As of March 2021, the 37 operational mail centres (divided into Royal Mail regions) were: [143]

  • East: Chelmsford, Norwich, Nottingham, Peterborough, Romford, Sheffield, South Midlands (Northampton)
  • West: Birmingham, Chester, Manchester, North West Midlands (Wolverhampton), Preston, Warrington
  • South East: Croydon, Gatwick (Crawley), Greenford, Home Counties North (Hemel Hempstead), Jubilee (Hounslow), Medway (Rochester), London Central (Mount Pleasant)
  • South West: Bristol, Cardiff, Dorset (Poole), Exeter, Gloucester, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Southampton, Swansea, Swindon, Truro
  • North: Aberdeen, Inverness, Carlisle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Northern Ireland (Newtownabbey), Tyneside/Newcastle (Gateshead)

Mail Centres in the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey are streamlined into the Royal Mail's domestic network.

Closures

The number of mail centres has been declining as part of the Mail Centre Rationalisation Programme. In 2008, there were 69 mail centres and in 2010 there were 64. It was anticipated that around half of these could be closed by 2016. [144] Oldham and Stockport along with Oxford and Reading mail centres all closed in 2009 and Bolton, Crewe, Liverpool, Northampton, Coventry and Milton Keynes were closed in 2010. Farnborough, Watford and Stevenage were closed in 2011. Hemel Hempstead, Southend, Worcester were closed in 2012. Dartford, Tonbridge, Maidstone and Canterbury were closed in 2012 but replaced by a new mail centre in Rochester. [145] The East London and South London mail centres were closed during summer 2012. [146]

In 2013 and 2014, a further eight mail centres were planned to be closed. [147] The old mail centres in Northampton, Coventry and Milton Keynes were replaced with the new South Midlands mail centre in Northampton covering Warwickshire, Coventry, Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes. [148] The South Midlands Mail Centre is the largest in the UK. [148]

Regional Distribution Centres

As of 2020 there are seven Regional Distribution Centres (RDCs) across the country. They are responsible for handling large pre-sorted mailings from business customers. [149]

Fleet

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, old delivery bicycles have been shipped to Africa by the charity Re~Cycle; over 8,000 had been donated by 2004. [150] 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. [151]

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. [152] Dedicated night mail flights are operated by Titan Airways for Royal Mail between East Midlands Airport and Bournemouth Airport and between Exeter International Airport and London Stansted Airport. One Boeing 737-3Y0 was flown in full Royal Mail livery. [153] In June 2013, Royal Mail confirmed it would extend Titan Airways' contract to operate night flights from Stansted Airport, from January 2014 to January 2017, introducing new routes to Edinburgh and Belfast using three Boeing 737s. [154] The new contract called for the replacement of the British Aerospace 146-200QC (Quick Change) aircraft in favour of a standard Boeing 737 fleet, [155] and the type was withdrawn by Titan Airways in November 2013. [156]

In 2021 Royal Mail announced plans to trial using a drone between the UK mainland and St Mary's airport, Isles of Scilly. The twin-engine vehicle is manufactured in the UK by the Windracers and is capable of carrying 100 kg of mail, which is the same weight as a typical delivery round. It is able to fly in poor weather conditions, including fog, and will be out of sight of any operator during the 70-mile journey. Vertical take-off and landing drones will take parcels between the islands in the archipelago. Royal Mail delivered its first parcel using a drone in December 2020 when a package was sent to a remote lighthouse on Scotland's Isle of Mull. [157] In Scotland, it partnered with Skyports for postal services using drones. [158]

The RMS St. Helena was a cargo and passenger ship that served the British overseas territory of Saint Helena. It sailed between Cape Town, Saint Helena and Ascension Island. [159] It was one of only two Royal Mail Ships in service, alongside the Queen Mary 2, although it did not belong to Royal Mail Group. [160]

Royal Mail operated the London Post Office Railway, a network of driverless trains running on a private underground track, from 1927 until it closed it in 2003. [161]

British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies

British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies have their own independent postal systems. (See List of postal entities.) Though served by independent operators, the three Crown Dependencies use British postcodes in co-operation with Royal Mail; each dependency has its own postal area. The same prices are charged by the four operators for delivery throughout their collective area, though delivery times vary, and UK mail to the Channel Islands must clear customs. [162]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Official in Wales, along with English name. [1]

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