UK Royal Mail delivers over a trillion letters

Royal Mail announces today that it has now delivered over a trillion letters across the UK since records began in 1839.

The trillionth letter marks another milestone in the company’s history – further evidence of how Royal Mail has developed over the course of its 370-year history in response to customers’ needs.

These changes have included:
• The introduction of free mail deliveries to every household in 1937
• The launch of the world’s first adhesive postage stamp, the Penny Black, in 1840
• The first pillarboxes erected in mainland Britain in 1853
• Bicycles first used in the delivery of mail in 1880
• The world’s first public airmail service took place in 1919
• The first country to introduce First and Second Class post in 1968
• Post coding all addresses in the UK was completed in 1974
• The UK mail market was opened up to full competition in 2006 – the first major European market to do so.

The delivery of over a trillion letters comes as Royal Mail faces another change – to the way post will be priced with the introduction of Pricing in Proportion on 21 August, meaning that post will now be priced according to size and shape as well as weight.

Delivering a trillion letters in just 160 years is a feat in itself and Royal Mail anticipates that the need for mail will only continue to rise. Even in an age of alternative channels of communication, such as e-mail and texting, Royal Mail handles 84 million items a day – with no sign of this dropping. With the huge increase in internet shopping in recent years, and the UK’s continued reliance on the postal service, Royal Mail expects it should pass the second trillion milestone within the next 30 years.
A Royal Mail spokesperson commented: "Royal Mail has continually evolved over the last 370 years to ensure mail stays relevant to everyday life. Delivering a trillion letters is a remarkable achievement, and we are determined to continue delivering a consistently high quality service to our customers in the future."’

So what does a trillion pieces of mail actually look like?

• All the letters sent since the invention of the Penny Black in 1839 would cover the whole of the earth 42,500 times over
• If you laid all the mail that Royal Mail has delivered since 1839 end to end, you could go to the moon and back 196 times
• It would take one person 38 million years to write one trillion letters
• It would take the whole population of the earth writing non stop over 2 days to write one trillion letters
• Royal Mail anticipates hitting their second trillion in 2036
• It would take over 31,688 years to count to a trillion

Ends

Issued on behalf of Royal Mail by Katharine McGettigan and Zac Schwarz at Shine Communications: Tel: 020 7553 333 [email protected]
[email protected]

Notes to Editors:
Imagery and spokespeople available upon request
Average letter size: 8x15cm
Average time to write a letter: 20 minutes

From 21 August 2006 Royal Mail is changing the way mail is priced – items will be priced on their size and shape as well as their weight. There are three basic size formats, a Letter, a Large Letter and a Packet.
Every address in the UK will receive a leaflet that explains the changes and a £10 million customer awareness campaign is currently running on television, radio and in newspapers. Plus, information is available in all 14,300 Post Office® branches.
For more details now on the pricing changes (Pricing in Proportion), go to www.royalmail.com/size, or call 08456 113 113.