Royal Mail

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Royal Mail Group Ltd
Type Limited
Founded 1660
Headquarters Flag of the United Kingdom London, United Kingdom
Key people Allan Leighton, Chairman
Adam Crozier, CEO
Industry postal service
Owner HM Government
Subsidiaries Post Office Limited
Website royalmailgroup.com
royalmail.com

Royal Mail is the national postal service of the United Kingdom. Historically, the General Post Office was a government department, which included — and still does — the Royal Mail delivery business; but it became The Post Office, a state-owned corporation, in 1969 and then a Public Limited Company wholly owned by HM Government in 2000. The name initially registered with Companies House was Trushelfco (No 2758) and this was changed to Consignia plc on 26th January 2001.

This new name was aimed at ending the confusion that had existed between the terms The Post Office (the whole organisation) and Post Offices (the customer accessible counters). Another reason was to have a unique name for the international market. This new name was unpopular with employees, the unions and the general public; and Consignia plc became Royal Mail Group plc in 2002, and then Royal Mail Group Limited in 2007.

Unlike other former state monopolies such as The Stationery Office, British Gas and British Telecom, Royal Mail was not privatised in the 1980s and 1990s, but remains a limited company wholly owned by the UK government.

A wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Mail is Post Office Limited, which operates the national network of post offices. As the activities of Royal Mail have been reduced, so the network of post offices has contracted.

Royal Mail remains responsible for the universal mail collection and delivery service in the UK. Letters are deposited in a pillar or wall box, taken to a post office, or (by arrangement) collected in bulk from businesses. Deliveries are made at least once every day (except Sundays and Bank Holidays) at uniform charges for all destinations within the UK.

According to its annual report for the year ended 26 March 2006, Royal Mail delivers 84 million items every working day and has a network of 14,376 post offices. Revenue for the year was £9.056 billion, and profits before tax were £312 million. Since this time, profits have dropped year on year – £233 million in 2006/7 falling to a £10 million/annum trading deficit in 2007. In 2008, the BBC reported that Royal Mail's trading position had worsened dramatically to an annual loss of £279 million/yr in financial 2007. As this met government targets, the CEO's remuneration increased to a record high.


Contents

[edit] History

See also: General Post Office (United Kingdom)
The main post office in Oxford, England, in St Aldate's.
The main post office in Oxford, England, in St Aldate's.
A Victorian hexagonal red post box outside King's College, Cambridge.
A Victorian hexagonal red post box outside King's College, Cambridge.

The Royal Mail traces 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 July 31, 1635, with postage being paid by the recipient, and 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.[1]

[edit] Uniform penny postage

Main article: Uniform Penny Post
A post box in front of Mansfield College, Oxford. It is marked ER VII for Edvardvs Rex, the seventh (King Edward VII)
A post box in front of Mansfield College, Oxford. It is marked ER VII for Edvardvs Rex, the seventh (King Edward VII)

In 1840 the mail underwent substantial reforms and the uniform penny post was introduced. A single rate for delivery anywhere in the UK was paid by the sender. To certify that postage had been paid on a letter, the sender would affix the first adhesive stamp, the Penny Black.

As the first country to issue stamps, British stamps are the only stamps that do not bear the name of the country of issue on them.

It has been asserted that it is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside down.[2] However, the newspaper that made this claim provides no source for this assertion, and none of the various Treason Acts make any mention of postage stamps.

[edit] Pillar boxes

Main article: pillar box

Traditionally UK post boxes carry the Latin initials of the reigning monarch at the time of their installation: in this case VR for Victoria Regina. Pillar boxes and other RMG Street Furniture are maintained by Romec Ltd.

[edit] 1960 to present

In 1969 the GPO was changed from a government department to a state-owned company, and the position of Postmaster General was abolished.

In 2000, The Post Office renamed itself ‘Consignia’. 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 "Royal Mail Group plc" with the following operating divisions:

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 and SmartStamp are all registered trademarks of Royal Mail Group plc.".[3]

In 2001 the government set up a postal regulator, Postcomm, and offered licences to private companies to deliver mail. In 2001, the Consumer Council for Postal Services, more commonly known as Postwatch, was created for consumers to express any concerns they may have with the postal service in the UK.

From January 1, 2006, the Royal Mail lost its 350-year monopoly and the UK postal market became fully open to competition.

[edit] Timeline

London's largest sorting office, Mount Pleasant
London's largest sorting office, Mount Pleasant
  • 1516: Royal Mail established by Henry VIII under Master of the Posts.
  • 1635: Royal Mail service first made available to the public by Charles I.
  • 1654: Oliver Cromwell grants monopoly over service in England to "Office of Postage".
  • 1657: Fixed postal rates introduced.
  • 1660: General Post Office (GPO) officially established by Charles II.
  • 1661: First use of date stamp. First Postmaster General appointed.
  • 1784: First Mail coach (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 Railway).
  • 1840: First adhesive stamp (the Penny Black).
  • 1852: First Post Office pillar box erected in Jersey.
  • 1853: First post boxes erected in mainland Britain.
  • 1857: First wall boxes installed Shrewsbury and Market Drayton
  • 1870: Post Office begins telegraph service.
  • 1870: Post Office Act banned sending of `indecent or obscene` literature
  • 1880: First use of bicycles to deliver mail.
  • 1881: Postal order introduced.
  • 1883: Parcel post begins.
  • 1894: First picture postcards.
  • 1912: Post Office opens national telephone service.
  • 1919: First international air mail service.
  • 1968: Two-class postal system introduced. National Giro bank opens.
  • 1969: General Post Office changes from government department to nationalised industry.
  • 1974: Postcodes extended over all UK.
  • 1981: Telecommunications services split out as British Telecom. Remainder renamed as "Post Office".
  • 1986: Separated businesses of delivering letters, delivering parcels and operating post offices.
  • 1989: Royal Mail establishes RoMec (Royal Mail Engineering & Construction) to deliver Facilities Maintenance services to its business. RoMec becomes owned 51% Royal Mail and 49% Haden BML in a joint venture.
  • 1990: Girobank sold to the Alliance & Leicester Building Society.
  • 1990: Royal Mail Parcels re-branded as Parcelforce.
  • 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[4].
  • 2004: Reduction of deliveries to once daily. Travelling post office ("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.[5] Competitors can carry mail, and pass it to Royal Mail for delivery, a service known as Downstream access Also introduces Pricing in Proportion (PiP) for first and second class inland mail.
  • 2006: Online postage 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 for the first time in 11 years over pay, conditions and pensions.
  • 2008: Sunday collections from pillar boxes end.

[edit] Non-postal services

Royal 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 was demerged by the British Telecommunications Act 1981. BT was later privatised.

The National Giro Bank was introduced in 1968, and sold to Alliance & Leicester in 1990.[citation needed]

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.

[edit] Public interest

The Royal Mail is regulated by Postcomm, while consumer interests are represented by Postwatch. The relationship between the two has not always been 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, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, 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 99.6% of mail arriving safely. According to Home Office figures from 2002 up to a million letters a week were lost or delivered to the wrong address [6] and one in five[citation needed] of these have been stolen, even letters or parcels sent via Recorded Delivery. However, most of these thefts are due to external crime rather than theft by staff[citation needed].

The Chief Executive of Royal Mail, Adam Crozier has been quoted on various occasions as saying that "every single letter is important."

[edit] Industrial relations

See also: 2007 Royal Mail industrial disputes
See also: Communication Workers Union (UK)

Royal Mail has been at the centre of a number of industrial disputes during its history - notably the national wildcat strikes in 2003[7] and a seven-week strike in 1971.[8] More recently, workers at Royal Mail set up the discussion forum royalmailchat "for all employees and customers of Royal Mail"[9] which has been central to the summer 2007 dispute over pay and conditions. By Autumn 2007, these disputes began to escalate into industrial action.[10] In mid October unions and management agreed a resolution to the dispute.

[edit] Fleet

Royal Mail Ford Transit van
Royal Mail Ford Transit van

In addition to running a large number of road vehicles, Royal Mail uses trains, a ship and an aircraft, with an air hub at East Midlands Airport.

The following aircraft are included in the dedicated fleet:

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, occasionally visiting the dependencies of Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha. It also visits the Isle of Portland, England twice per year. It is one of the last remaining ocean-going ships to carry the designation Royal Mail Ship.

The London Post Office Railway is no longer in use.[citation needed]

[edit] 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 [1] is used.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.bathpostalmuseum.org/hop5.html
  2. ^ The Times. The World's Strangest Laws. Retrieved on 2007-08-25.
  3. ^ http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump2?catId=400138&mediaId=600023
  4. ^ http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/03/17/royal_email_backs_security_service/
  5. ^ http://www.postalconsumers.org/content/IPU/060701.pdf#search=%22royal%20mail%20competition%20europe%22
  6. ^ Postwatch, "Royal Mail's Lost Mail", press release, 12 August 2002(PDF)
  7. ^ "Wildcats return with a roar - postal wildcat strike, 2003" (libcom.org)
  8. ^ 1971: "Post strike ends with pay deal" (bbc.co.uk)
  9. ^ Royal Mail Chat
  10. ^ Mark Tran and agencies. "Crozier hits out at striking postal workers", The Guardian, 2007-10-09. Retrieved on 2007-11-11. 
  11. ^ Airliners.net. G-ZAPV. Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  • BBC report on loss of monopoly
  • Getting the Message - The Story of the British Post Office - Christopher Browne 1993 ISBN 0750903511
  • A brief history of the POST OFFICE - A GPO public relations publication 1965

[edit] External links

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Postal system of the United Kingdom
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Organisations and philately