page_title: Royal Mail
section_title: Modernisation
hierarchical_section_title: Royal Mail / History / Modernisation
caption_attribution_description: Mount Pleasant postal sorting office in Clerkenwell
context_page_description: Royal Mail Group plc is a British postal service and courier company, originally established in 1516. The company's subsidiary Royal Mail Group Limited operates the brands Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide. General Logistics Systems, an international logistics company, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Mail Group. The group used the name Consignia for a brief period in the early 2000s, before reverting to its original name.
  The company provides mail collection and delivery services throughout the UK. Letters and parcels are deposited in a post or parcel boxes or are collected in bulk from businesses, this is then transported to Royal Mail sorting offices. Royal Mail owns and maintains the UK's distinctive red pillar boxes, first introduced in 1852, many of which bear the initials of the reigning monarch. Deliveries are made at least once every day except Sundays and bank holidays at uniform charges for all UK destinations. Royal Mail generally aims to make first class deliveries the next business day throughout the nation.
  For most of its history, the Royal Mail was a public service, operating as a government department or public corporation.
context_section_description: After a change of government in 1997, the Labour administration decided to keep the Post Office state-owned but with more commercial freedom. This led to the Postal Services Act 2000, where the Post Office became a public limited company in which the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry owned 50,004 ordinary shares plus 1 special share, and the Treasury Solicitor held 1 ordinary share. The company was renamed Consignia plc in 2001 and the new name was intended to show that the company did more than deliver mail; however, the change was very unpopular with both the public and employees. The Communication Workers Union (CWU) boycotted the name, and the following year, it was announced that the company would be renamed Royal Mail Group plc.
  In 1999 Royal Mail launched a short-lived e-commerce venture, ViaCode Limited, aimed at providing encrypted online communications services. However it failed to make a profit and closed in 2002.
  As part of the 2000 Act the government set up a postal regulator, the Postal Services Commission, known as Postcomm, which offered licences to private companies to deliver mail. In 2001, the Consumer Council for Postal Services, known as Postwatch, was created for consumers to express any concerns they may have with the postal service in Britain.
  In 2004, the second daily delivery was scrapped in an effort to reduce costs and improve efficiency, meaning a later single delivery would be made. That year, the travelling post office mail trains were also axed. The following year Royal Mail signed a contract with GB Railfreight to operate an overnight rail service between London and Scotland (carrying bulk mail, and without any on-train sorting); this was later followed by a London-Newcastle service.
  On 1 January 2006, the Royal Mail lost its 350-year monopoly and the British postal market became fully open to competition. Competitors were allowed to collect and sort mail, and pass it to Royal Mail for delivery, a service known as downstream access. Royal Mail introduced Pricing in Proportion (PiP) for first and second class inland mail, whereby prices are affected by the size as well as weight of items. It also introduced an online postage service, allowing customers to pay for postage online.
  In 2007 the Royal Mail Group plc became Royal Mail Group Ltd in a slight change of legal status. Royal Mail ended Sunday collections from pillar boxes that year.
  On 1 October 2008, Postwatch was merged into the new consumer watchdog Consumer Focus.
  In 2008, due to a continuing fall in mail volumes the government commissioned an independent review of the postal services sector by Richard Hooper CBE, the former deputy chairman of Ofcom. The recommendations in the Hooper Review led Business Secretary Lord Mandelson to seek to part privatise the company by selling a minority stake to a commercial partner. However, despite legislation for the sale passing the House of Lords, it was abandoned in the House of Commons after strong opposition from backbench Labour MPs. The government later cited the difficult economic conditions for the reason behind the retreat.
  After the departure of Adam Crozier to ITV plc on 27 May 2010, Royal Mail appointed Canadian Moya Greene as chief executive, the first woman to hold the post.
  On 6 December 2010, a number of paid-for services including Admail, post office boxes and private postboxes were removed from the Inland Letter Post Scheme (ILPS) and became available under contract. Several free services including petitions to parliament and the sovereign, and poste restante were removed from the scheme.
caption: London's largest sorting office, Mount Pleasant
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