Postal services in the United Kingdom are provided predominantly by the Royal Mail (and

Post Office Limited gd, Oifis a' Phuist kw, Sodhva an Post ga, An Post Ríoga , logo = Post Office Logo.svg , type = State-owned private company limited by shares , genre = , predecessor = General Post Office , foundation = 1987 , founder = , location_cit ...

which oversees post offices). Since 2006, the market has been fully opened to competition which has had greater success in business-to-business delivery than in ordinary letter delivery. The industry is regulated by Ofcom and consumer interests are represented by

Consumer Focus The New National Consumer Council, operating as Consumer Futures, was a non-departmental public body and statutory consumer organisation in England, Wales, Scotland, and, for postal services, Northern Ireland. It was established by the Consumers, ...

. Since 1 October 2011, the main piece of legislation is the

Postal Services Act 2011 The Postal Services Act 2011 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act enabled the British Government to sell shares in Royal Mail to private investors and includes the possible mutualisation of the Post Office. The Act allows ...

, although some parts of the

Postal Services Act 2000 The Postal Services Act 2000 (c.26) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, relating to the postal industry. It established an industry regulator, Postcomm (s.1), a consumer watchdog, Postwatch (s.2), required a "universal service" o ...

are still in force. The 2011 Act enables the government to privatise Royal Mail and to possibly mutualise Post Office Limited.

History

The quality of postal services in the 17th and 18th centuries improved with development of better roads and means of transportation. Anthony Trollope is credited with major contributions to the development of postal services in the years 1851-1867, described, ''e.g.'' in Chapters 8 and 13 of his autobiography.Trollope, Anthony (1883).
''An Autobiography''.
Retrieved 2010-07-02. *

Postmaster General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having a government official responsib ...

, position created in 1510 * Royal Mail, established 1516 by King Henry VIII * General Post Office, established 1660 by King Charles II *

Rowland Hill Sir Rowland Hill, KCB, FRS (3 December 1795 – 27 August 1879) was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of Uniform Penny Post and his soluti ...

, creator of the penny post, 1840 *

, separated from Royal Mail as a new business in 1986 *

Parcelforce Parcelforce Worldwide is a courier and logistics service in the United Kingdom. Parcelforce Worldwide is a trading name of the Royal Mail and is organised within the UK Parcels, International and Letters division of the group. The company del ...

, separated as a new division within Royal Mail in 1986 *''

Green Paper on Postal Reform The Green Paper on Postal Reform (Department of Trade and Industry, 1994) was a United Kingdom government draft plan to privatise and regulate the UK postal services. It set out various options, the key points of the plan being, *writing into l ...

(1994)'' published, options for further privatisation and regulation of the Post Office and Royal Mail *

British Forces Post Office The British Forces Post Office (BFPO) 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. BFPO moved from its ...

, the British Armed Forces’ postal & courier service, a history of its development

Law

*First Postal Services Directive, 97/67/EC *Second Postal Services Directive, 2002/39/EC *Third Postal Services Directive, 2008/06/EC

Industry

A small number of postal services operate widely in the United Kingdom. Most notably and previously mentioned is the Royal Mail. After the opening up of the industry, competitors such as Whistl and UK Mail have found their place offering business postal solutions. *UK Mail *Northern Mail *The Delivery Group *Whistl *Central Mailing Services *Citipost Mail These companies, despite being competitors to the Royal Mail, hand over sorted mail to the Royal Mail for "last mile delivery" due to the sheer dominance the latter hold in a process called 'Down Stream Access'. Whistl when known as TNT Post did attempt to do the entire supply chain (that being: Collection, Sorting, Distribution and Delivery) in London, Liverpool and Manchester. Beyond these regions they continued to use down stream access. However these efforts failed when LDC, a division of the Lloyd's banking group decided against investing in Whistl because of "ongoing changes in UK postal market dynamics and the complexity of the regulatory landscape". Whistl said: "Following the announcement from LDC that it would not proceed with the proposed investment... to fund further rollout of E2E nd-to-endwe have now commenced an extensive review of the viability and potential for the rollout of an e2e postal delivery service in the UK".

History

Law

Industry

References

See also