Tag: Royal Mail

Main findings:
The barriers to entry for mail collection and delivery are high, although, due to advances in digital printing, they are starting to come down. Competition has primarily come from the logistics sector, which also provides courier and express parcel-delivery services. New technology, however, could see new entrants from other quarters. Existing providers are already developing hybrid mail systems that allow users to e-mail their mail content, which is then sorted electronically before being sent, again electronically, to the nearest printing plant to the final destination point where the mail is printed, collated, put into envelopes, sorted according to Royal Mail’s Walksort criteria and delivered in that location.
This not only saves time and money, but also reduces the amount of traffic on the roads. It is likely that a number of location-specific printing houses, using advanced mail-printing technology, will develop across the UK.
All competition has concentrated in the B2B and business-to-consumer (B2C) mail market: The Royal Mail continues to collect, sort and deliver mail from consumers through its Post Office services. The Post Office division of The Royal Mail’s business continues to be unprofitable and, in 2007, some tough and unpopular cost-cutting measures were introduced with the start of a programme, continuing into 2008, that sees the closure of many post offices across the UK.
With strike action from Royal Mail postal workers over pay and working conditions in 2007, and threatened again in 2008, coupled with post office closures, the Royal Mail brand has received much negative publicity. However, its strength has cast it as a venerable UK institution and there are, as yet, no serious contenders to threaten its position.
Nevertheless, with full deregulation, the UK Government is committed to ensuring that the UK postal market is fully competitive, and has commissioned a review of the market and how it is regulated.
This Key Note Market Assessment report examines the market as it stands, as well as looking at how the mail markets operate on an international level, and suggesting how the market will develop in the future. Extensive research has been conducted using information from the regulatory body Postcomm, as well as individual companies and European and international information sources. Key Note also invited key industry practitioners to take part in a virtual roundtable, to elicit views from within the industry itself. Their responses can be found in Chapter 8 — Industry Dynamics — of this report.