UK Royal Mail and Deutsche Post access deal

Royal Mail has signed an access agreement with Deutsche Post providing the German company with access to Royal Mail’s local sorting and delivery network.

From August 2004 Deutsche Post Global Mail will offer businesses mailing over 4,000 pre-sorted letters a day, a two-day mail delivery service.

Under the agreement, Deutsche Post Global Mail will collect mail from its business customers and transport it to one of Royal Mail’s 72 Mail Centres around the UK for final sorting work. Royal Mail will then take the mail to its delivery offices, from where it will be delivered by Royal Mail’s 80,000 postmen and women.

For ordinary-sized letters weighing up to 60g – the weight range covered by basic postage – Royal Mail will be paid by Deutsche Post 13.0p for letters sorted down to the level of Royal Mail’s 1,450 Delivery Offices, and 13.375p for letters only sorted to the level of the 121 UK postcode areas. For A4-sized larger letters weighing up to 60g, Royal Mail will be paid 14p. Other prices go up to £3.65, depending on the weight of the mail.

Royal Mail’s Strategy and Regulatory Affairs Director, Stephen Agar, said: “This further agreement on access to Royal Mail””s sorting and delivery network demonstrates that those major players keen to enter the UK mail market accept that any uniform prices paid for access should be based on an average bag of mail covering a wide geographic spread of addresses. Royal Mail is pleased that all the access agreements are based on this crucial principle. It means that Royal Mail has safeguarded its ability to continue delivering the one-price-goes-anywhere universal service to the UK””s 27 million addresses. Clearly, if any company was only interested in access for expensive-to-deliver rural mail, the price paid to Royal Mail would have to be higher in order to ensure the contract was commercially viable.”

Michael Proffitt, Deutsche Post managing director Europe & UK, commented: “This access agreement represents a highly satisfactory basis upon which Deutsche Post will provide a competitive and profitable business mail service to UK customers.

“Deutsche Post’s business mail service aims to provide a quality and flexibility of service that enables customers to take charge of their mailing needs. The agreement now allows us to combine Royal Mail’s strength in local delivery with our own DHL collection network to provide the market with a realistic alternative service.”
A special indicator in the top right hand corner of each item will identify the mail handled under the access agreement.