Welcome to Postcomm's website

Did you know that

  • business customers account for nearly 90% of the mail market?
  • and, since the market is opened to full competition on 1 January 2006, you’ve had new choices in postal services?

Before 2006, the market was already partly open to competition, for bulk mailings of 4,000 items or more, and some firms – including Sky, Tesco Clubcard and Vodafone - were already using new licensed operators to provide mail services.

But it’s not only big businesses like these that can benefit from full market opening. Mail services – and mail costs – are just as important for smaller organisations. And businesses of all sizes now have new choices to make - choice of postal operator and choice of service.

Research commissioned by Postcomm has found the benefits that large mailers have been experiencing since the market was opened are now spreading to smaller businesses. However, further progress is needed and the challenge posed by growing alternatives to mail confirms the need for mail operators to continue to pursue greater innovation.

The market research, which forms part of Postcomm’s latest annual Business Customer Survey (pdf, 5067 KB) revealed:

  • although Royal Mail remains the dominant operator, 23% of mailers are using more than one mail provider;
  • one in four respondents have explored alternatives to mail and have moved some of their mail to other media in the past 12 months which confirms the need for all postal operators to place more emphasis on innovation; and
  • 55% of respondents agreed that competition has improved choice and 40% believe competition has improved Royal Mail’s quality of service.

Market opening has brought new services and innovations – tracked mail and later collection times, for example. And, now that the fully liberalised market is now almost three years old, we expect to see even more options developing for businesses over the next few years. Postcomm's Competitive Market Review (pdf, 1313KB), also published in October 2008, contains information on alternative operators, their business models and developments and trends in the mail market.

Both the Competive Market Review and the Business Customer Survey are available in this summary document (pdf, 1245KB)

Limited market opening brought new services – tracked mail and later collection times, for example. And, now that the market is fully open, we expect to see even more options developing for businesses over the next few years.

In the meantime, there’s plenty you can do to make sure you’re getting the best value for your mailing money. See our page on reviewing your mail services provider for more details.

And if you have any questions about how competition in the mail market affects you, please let us know. We’d also like to hear from you if you’ve switched some or all of your business to one of the new operators, or if you’ve decided to stay with Royal Mail.

We hope our website helps you to find out more about developments in the mail market. You might be especially interested in the following pages:

  •  Postcomm factsheets . A series of short guides to key issues in the postal services market, including a brief guide to reviewing your mail services provider.
  • COMMentary. Keep up to date with Postcomm's consultations, roadshows and events by reading our newsletter. COMMentary is available in pdf format on the home page. If you would prefer to receive hard copies by post, please contact us.
  • Updates service. Sign up (on the home page) for our email updates and you'll be alerted to all our news, documents and events. In the meantime, here is a link to our news page.
  • Details of licensed operators . Full contact details for all licensed postal operators.
  • How to apply for a postal services licence. If you're considering setting up a postal operation yourself, you will need to have a Postcomm licence, and this page gives more details on the application process. You might also be interested in our consultation on the postal licensing framework. We are currently looking at whether and how we might make it easier for smaller organisations to offer postal services and would be very interested in hearing your views.
  • Details of mail industry suppliers , including consultants and mail services providers.
  • How to complain . Complaints contacts for licensed postal operators, including Royal Mail.

If you have any suggestions on how we might improve our website, please contact our webmanager.