Royal Mail

Royal Mail Holdings plc
Type Public limited company
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
Divisions Royal Mail
Parcelforce Worldwide
Subsidiaries Post Office Ltd.
General Logistics Systems
Website royalmailgroup.com
royalmail.com

Royal Mail is the national postal service of the United Kingdom. Royal Mail Holdings plc owns Royal Mail Group Limited, which in turns operates the brands "Royal Mail" (UK letters), "Parcelforce Worldwide" (UK parcels) and "General Logistics Systems". "Post Office Ltd.", which provides counter services, is a wholly owned subsiduary. Royal Mail Holdings plc is a public limited company where the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform owns 50,004 ordinary shares plus 1 special share, and the Treasury Solicitor holds 1 ordinary share.[1]

Historically, the General Post Office was a government department, which included the Royal Mail delivery business; but it became the Post Office, a state-owned corporation, in 1969.[2] Most of the duties were passed to Consignia plc in November 2001,[3] and the old Post Office was dissolved in 2007.[3] Consignia plc changed their name to Consignia Holdings Public Limited Company, then Royal Mail Holdings plc, the current name.[4]

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.

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

History

See also: General Post Office (United Kingdom)
The main post office in Oxford, England, in St Aldate's.

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.[5]

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)

The mail underwent substantial reforms when the Uniform Penny Post was introduced on January 10, 1840 whereby a single rate for delivery anywhere in the UK 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 May 6 of the same year. Other innovations were the introduction of pre-paid William Mulready designed postal stationery letter sheets and envelopes.

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, nor the currency in which they are issued (if below £1).

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.[6]

It has been asserted that it is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside down.[7] 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.

Pillar boxes

Main article: Pillar box
A Victorian hexagonal red post box outside King's College, Cambridge.

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.

1960 to present

In 1969 the GPO was changed from a government department to a public corporation, 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 (as part of the Royal Mail logotype) and SmartStamp are all registered trademarks of Royal Mail Group plc.".[8]

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.

Timeline

London's largest sorting office, Mount Pleasant

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.

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

Bicycle messenger of Royal mail in Ilminster, UK

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 [11] and one in five 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.

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

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[12] and a seven-week strike in 1971.[13] More recently, workers at Royal Mail set up the discussion forum royalmailchat "for all employees and customers of Royal Mail"[14] which has been central to the summer 2007 dispute over pay and conditions. By Autumn 2007, these disputes began to escalate into industrial action.[15] In mid October unions and management agreed a resolution to the dispute.

Fleet

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.[17]

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.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Royal Mail". Shareholderexecutive.gov.uk. Retrieved on 2008-10-27.
  2. ↑ "Post Office Act 1969 (c. 48) - Statute Law Database". Statutelaw.gov.uk. Retrieved on 2008-10-27.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "The Dissolution of the Post Office Order 2007 (No. 1180) - Statute Law Database". Statutelaw.gov.uk. Retrieved on 2008-10-27.
  4. ↑ WebCheck entry for "Royal Mail Holdings plc"
  5. ↑ [1]
  6. ↑ "Murray's Handbook to London As It Is". Victorian London - Communications - Post - Delivery Times and Postal Regulations (1879). Retrieved on 2008-12-03.
  7. ↑ The Times. "The World's Strangest Laws". Retrieved on 2007-08-25.
  8. ↑ http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump2?catId=400138&mediaId=600023
  9. ↑ http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/03/17/royal_email_backs_security_service/
  10. ↑ [2]
  11. ↑ Postwatch, "Royal Mail's Lost Mail", press release, 12 August 2002(PDF)
  12. ↑ "Wildcats return with a roar - postal wildcat strike, 2003" (libcom.org)
  13. ↑ 1971: "Post strike ends with pay deal" (bbc.co.uk)
  14. ↑ Royal Mail Chat
  15. ↑ Mark Tran and agencies (2007-10-09). "Crozier hits out at striking postal workers", Guardian. Retrieved on 2007-11-11. 
  16. ↑ Airliners.net. "G-ZAPV". Retrieved on 2007-04-25.
  17. ↑ "Final delivery for Mail", This is Local London, 2003-05-30.

External links

Postal system of the United Kingdom
UK postcodes and postal units

Postal county · Post town · List of post towns · London postal district · List of postcode areas · List of postcode districts · Postcode Address File · Mailsort
Organisations and philately

Royal Mail · Post Office · British Forces Post Office · Parcelforce · Postage stamps and postal history