Royal Mail
| Royal Mail
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Public limited company |
| ISIN | GB00BDVZYZ77 |
| founding | 1516 |
| Seat |
London , UK
|
| management | |
| Number of employees | 160,518 (2015) |
| sales | 9,328,000,000 pounds (2014/15) |
| Branch | logistics |
| Website | royalmailgroup.com |
Royal Mail is the UK's national postal service . Historically, the Royal Mail was a government agency that has been a state enterprise since 1969 . Unlike previous state monopolies such as The Stationery Office , British Gas and British Telecom , it was not privatized in the 1980s and 1990s. It has the status of a public limited company .
Post Office Limited is a subsidiary of Royal Mail and operates the nationwide network of post offices. As Royal Mail's business declines, it has reduced the number of branches, which in the past has led to complaints from local authorities who depend on their services.
Royal Mail remains responsible for the sole delivery of mail in the UK. Letters are thrown in letter boxes, handed in at a post office or picked up in larger companies. Deliveries are made daily (except Sundays or Bank Holidays ) with a fixed delivery charge to all UK destinations.
According to its report for the year ended March 26, 2006, Royal Mail carries 84 million mail items daily and has a network of 14,376 post offices. Income was £ 9.056 billion and profit was £ 312 million.
history
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The Royal Mail can trace its history back to 1516, when Henry VIII appointed a "Master of the Posts". The Royal Mail postal service was opened to the public in 1635 by Charles I. Under Charles II , the General Post Office was re-established in 1660 . It was created by Oliver Cromwell in 1654/1657 . Since the era of the Cromwell Republic is considered illegal in Great Britain, officially only 1660 is to be regarded as the year of foundation, but in fact the royal decree was made precisely because of the great success of the republican institution.
Bath postmaster Ralph Allen signed a series of contracts with the Post Office between 1719 and 1763 to develop and expand the UK postal network. He organized a service with stagecoaches, which were provided partly by Wilson & Co. in London and partly by Williams & Co. in Bath. These early Royal Mail carriages were essentially normal passenger carriages with coachmen in Royal Mail livery .
Uniform penny mail
On December 5, 1839, the post office was subjected to a fundamental reform following proposals by Rowland Hill, the 4-P. postage, or 1 P. within London, and on January 10, 1840 the Penny Post was introduced in general . For a shipment within the UK, there was now only a single fee to be paid by the sender. In order to prove the payment of this fee, the sender was able to apply the first stick-on postage stamp from May 6, 1840 , the Penny Black , but cash franking was still permitted for years. In addition, from May 6, 1840, envelopes with an imprinted value of one penny, the so-called Mulready envelopes, were issued .
1960 until today
The GPO was converted into a state enterprise in 1969 by a ministry. The post of Postmaster General was abolished. The Post Office was renamed 'Consignia' in 2000. However, this name change was very unpopular both with the public and with the company's own employees. From 2002 the organization was called "Royal Mail Group plc" with the following operational areas:
- Royal Mail, for sending letters
- Parcelforce, for sending parcels
- Post Office Limited, who manage post offices across the country in a retail style
The UK government created a postal regulator called Postcomm in 2001 and licensed private companies to transport mail. That same year, the Consumer Council for Postal Service , better known as Postwatch , was also founded. It is used so that customers can openly express their problems with Swiss Post.
Beginning January 1, 2006, the Royal Mail lost its 350-year monopoly and the UK postal market was completely opened to competitors.
On September 12, 2013, the British government announced the privatization of the Royal Mail. 10% of the shares will go to the employees, the remainder will be offered to institutional and private investors for sale. The post offices, which are operated by the company "The Post Office", however, remain in state ownership.
The fleet
The Royal Mail air hub is at Nottingham East Midlands Airport . The Royal Mail maintains a Boeing 737-3Y0 there . In addition, until 2018 Royal Mail operated the mail ship RMS St. Helena , which connected the British overseas territory of the same name with England and South Africa.
Timeline
- 1516: Royal Mail founded by Henry VIII under a "Master of the Posts"
- July 31, 1635: Under Charles I , the postal service is opened to the public
- 1654: Oliver Cromwell grants the monopoly for Great Britain to the "Office of Postage"
- 1657: Introduction of fixed fees
- 1660: The General Post Office is established by Charles II.
- 1661: First use of a date stamp, appointment of the first Postmaster General
- 1784: The first stagecoach (between London and Bristol )
- 1793: The first uniformed deliverers are on duty. Creation of the "Post Office Investigation Branch", the first known unit for investigating crimes.
- 1830: First mail train running (on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway )
- 1840: Introduction of the first stick-on postage stamp (the One Penny Black ).
- 1853: The first post boxes are installed on the British mainland.
- 1854: Rowland Hill becomes secretary in the Post Office.
- 1858: There are 10 delivery districts in London
- 1870: The Post Office begins a telegraph service.
- 1880: The first bicycles are used for delivery.
- 1881: Money is sent by post for the first time.
- 1883: The parcel post starts its service.
- 1894: The first motif postcards appear.
- 1912: The Post Office introduces the first national telephone services
- 1917: London's postal districts are divided into numbered zones.
- 1919: The first international airmail is delivered.
- 1927: The London Post Office Railway goes into operation.
- 1968: The National Giro Bank opens.
- 1969: The General Post Office is converted by an authority into a state enterprise.
- 1974: Postcodes are introduced across the UK
- 1979: The Prestel Videotex system is started.
- 1981: Telecommunications services are transferred to British Telecom . Renamed to Post Office.
- 1986: Separation of the mailing, parcel and post office branches.
- 1990: Sale of the giro bank to Alliance & Leicester
- 1997: The connection between the Royal Mail and London stations is terminated.
- 1999: With "Royal Mail ViaCode" (also called "ViaCode Limited") the Royal Mail tried to get into the business of internet security and digital certificates. The company was closed again in 2002.
- 2000: Briefly renamed "Consignia".
- 2001: Neil Monk joins the Royal Mail. The "Apollo Project" restructuring program starts.
- 2003: The London Post Office Railway ceases to operate .
- 2004: Only one delivery per day, the Traveling Post Offices / Mail Trains (rolling sorting stations) are discontinued, SmartStamp introduced .
- 2005: The Mail Trains are reintroduced on some routes.
- 2006: The Royal Mail loses its postal monopoly when Postcomm opens the postal market three years before the rest of Europe. Introduction of a new price system.
- 2006: Postal worker Roger Annies is suspended from duty for unofficially distributing promotional mail flyers to residents of Barry, South Wales.
- 2006: Online Postage allows Royal Mail customers to pay for postage over the Internet and not purchase postage stamps (comparable to Deutsche Post's Internet stamp ).
- 2013: Royal Mail IPO.
Non-postal services
The Royal Mail introduced telegraph services in 1870 and telephone services in 1912. She was responsible for the British telephone network until British Telecom was founded .
The National Giro Bank was founded in 1968 and sold to Alliance & Leicester in 1990 .
Historically, many government payments and state pensions were paid out in cash through the network of post offices. However, since in recent years such services have increasingly been paid out through bank transfers, this led to a drop in sales at Royal Mail and the closure of branches.
Public interest
The Royal Mail is regulated by the Postcomm. Postwatch safeguards the interests of customers. The relationship between the two organizations was not always good. In 2005, Postwatch took constitutional action against decisions made by Postcomm.
The responsible ministry is the trade and industry ministry, with the public financial interests being looked after by the shareholder executive .
Shipments to Germany
Depending on the form of dispatch, Royal Mail uses both Deutsche Post DHL and its own subsidiary GLS in Germany as logistics partners. Delivery addresses ( Packstation ) managed by DHL that are not served by GLS may lead to the return to the sender. In order to check consignments handed over to GLS, Royal Mail parcel numbers can also be entered directly in GLS consignment tracking in order to view the associated GLS parcel number and the consignment status.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Royal Mail Group Board. Retrieved January 3, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Royal Mail: Annual Report and Financial Statements 2014-15. (PDF) Retrieved March 14, 2016 (English).
- ^ Royal Mail: British government pushes Post IPO. In: Spiegel Online . September 12, 2013, accessed January 6, 2017 .