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| Royal Mail Group Ltd | |
|---|---|
| |
| Type | Limited |
| Founded | 1660 |
| Headquarters |  London, United Kingdom |
| Industry | postal service |
| Owner | UK government |
| Subsidiaries | Post Office Limited |
| Slogan | "With us it\'s personal" "Best and most trusted" |
| 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 Consignia plc.
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.
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.
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The main post office in Oxford, England, in St Aldate\'s.
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". 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. http://www.bathpostalmuseum.org/hop5.html
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.The Times. The World\'s Strangest Laws. Retrieved on 2007-08-25. 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.
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.
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.".http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump2?catId=400138&mediaId=600023
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.
London\'s largest sorting office, Mount Pleasant
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 repsonsible 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.
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 Postwatch, "Royal Mail\'s Lost Mail", press release, 12 August 2002(PDF) 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."
Royal Mail has been at the centre of a number of industrial disputes during its history - notably the national wildcat strikes in 2003"Wildcats return with a roar - postal wildcat strike, 2003" (libcom.org) and a seven-week strike in 1971.1971: "Post strike ends with pay deal" (bbc.co.uk) More recently, workers at Royal Mail set up the discussion forum royalmailchat "for all employees and customers of Royal Mail"Royal Mail Chat which has been central to the summer 2007 dispute over pay and conditions. By Autumn 2007, these disputes began to escalate into industrial action. Mark Tran and agencies. "Crozier hits out at striking postal workers", The Guardian, 2007-10-09. Retrieved on 2007-11-11. In mid October unions and management agreed a resolution to the dispute.
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 has been mothballed.
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.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3681547.stm
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
| 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 |
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