Defining the universal service
Postcomm is responsible for defining the universal postal service, and recognises that the service may need to change over time as postal users' requirements change.
In June 2004, following a year-long review, Postcomm listed five areas of service offered by Royal Mail that the company will be required to provide as universal postal services at an affordable flat rate.
The five service areas are:
- priority and non-priority mail services (letters and packets) weighing up to 2 kilos - Royal Mail's first and second class mail services;
- a non-priority service for parcels weighing up to 20 kilos – Royal Mail’s standard parcel service;
- a registered and insured service – Royal Mail’s Special Delivery (next day) product;
- a range of support services to ensure the security and integrity of the mail – Royal Mail’s re-direction (up to 12 months), Keepsafe, Poste Restante, certificate of posting and business collections;
- international outbound service – Royal Mail's international public tariff and international signed-for products. The UK is also subject to the Universal Postal Union’s requirement to deliver mail coming from abroad.
At that time, it was decided that Royal Mail’s universal service obligation should also include its Recorded (signed for) product and at least one bulk mail product. Stakeholders were consulted on which bulk product or products should be included in the universal service, and in June 2005, Postcomm announced that it had decided to include both:
- Mailsort 1400 (first and second class),
- which covers mail of all formats up to 2kg in weight and pre-sorted according to the location of the 1,400 delivery offices, and
- Cleanmail (first and second class),
- which does not require users to have sorting machines and is the "entry level" bulk mail product most often used by smaller businesses.
Full lists of documents relating to:
