UK Postcomm asks customers what they want from the universal postal service

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Postcomm has launched a three-month consultation to find out what
users expect from the universal postal service currently provided by
Royal Mail.
A document published by Postcomm today invites postal users for the
first time to comment on the universal service, to say what matters to
them, and how they expect the service to develop – for example in
response to changes in technology.
UK legislation sets the minimum requirement for a universal postal
service as at least one collection and one delivery of mail each
working day at an affordable and geographically uniform price. But as
competition in postal services develops, with full market opening in
2007, Postcomm wants to identify more clearly which services must be
included in the universal service which Postcomm is committed to
safeguarding.
Until now, there has been no detailed definition of the universal service.
It is currently taken to include more than 100 different products
provided by Royal Mail — from first and second class letters to the
handling of specialised business post. This consultation is the first step to
defining what should be included. Postcomm plans to issue a policy
statement at the end of the year.
Graham Corbett, Chairman of Postcomm said:
“Postcomm’s number one priority is to ensure the preservation of the
universal postal service, which Parliament has decreed must lie at the
centre of postal services in the UK. As competition develops and the
market provides customers with different products, we – and customers
— need to be clear about which services should constitute the universal
service and therefore be subject to safeguards whilst provided at a
geographically uniform price.
“It is primarily for users of postal services, not Postcomm, to say how
they want services to develop, and I hope domestic and business users
will let us have their views. Once we have them we will move forward
to consult on a definition of the universal service.”
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Notes for editors
Today’s consultation follows informal preliminary discussions with the
consumer body Postwatch and others and is the first stage of a formal
review which will proceed through a series of consultations over the
coming year.
n the light of responses to this consultation, Postcomm plans to issue a
document in the summer setting out its proposals on what should
constitute the universal service and, in turn, which services Royal Mail
(currently the sole provider of the universal service in the UK) should be
required to provide. By the end of 2003, Postcomm expects to issue a
formal statement setting out its view.
The European Postal Service Directive sets minimum requirements for a
universal service within member states. A geographically uniform price
is not compulsory in Europe, although most member states opt for one
– in the UK it is a legal requirement. It is left to member states to decide
exactly what services to include in their universal service.
The consultation document The universal postal service in the UK: what
services should be provided? is published today on Postcomm’s
website, www.postcomm.gov.uk. Bound copies will be available shortly
from Postcomm at 6 Hercules Road, London SE1 7DB.