Information AboutRoyal Mail |
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Royal Mail is the national Postal Service of the United Kingdom . Historically, the Royal Mail was a Government Department , but it has been a state-owned company since 1969. Unlike other former State Monopolies such as The Stationery Office , British Gas and British Telecom , Royal Mail was not Privatised in the 1980s and 1990s, but remains a Public Limited Company wholly owned by the UK Government . A wholly-owned Subsidiary of Royal Mail is Post Office Limited , which operates the national network of local post offices. As the activities of Royal Mail have been reduced, so the network of post offices has contracted, much to the consternation of local communities which have come to rely on their services. Royal Mail remains responsible for the universal mail collection and delivery service in the UK. Letters are deposited in a Pillar or Wall Box , taken to a Post Office , or (by arrangement) collected in bulk from businesses. Deliveries are made once every day (except Sunday) to addresses throughout the UK, from Shetland to Cornwall , and the same prices are charged however remote the sender or recipient. As Of 2005 , Royal Mail Group plc employs more than 200,000 people and delivers 82 million items a day [http://www.royalmailgroup.com/aboutus/aboutus8.asp . HISTORY hexagonal red post box outside .]] The Royal Mail traces its history back to 1516 , when Henry VIII established a "Master of the Posts". The Royal Mail service was first made available to the public by Charles I in 1635 , with postage being paid by the recipient, and the General Post Office (GPO) was officially established by Charles II in 1660 . In his 1816 novel '' The Antiquary '', Walter Scott has an express letter arrive in a small-town post office – which must now rise to the challenge of delivering it. "I'm no gaun to let naebody see the letter," sobbed the boy, "till I gie't to Mr. Lovel, for I am a faithfu' servant o' the office—if it werena for the powny [... Davie... was with difficulty prevailed upon to surrender the packet to its proper owner... "But my minnie said, I maun be sure to get twenty shillings and five shillings for the postage, and ten shillings and sixpence for the express—there's the paper." Uniform penny postage See Also: Penny postage In 1840 the mail underwent substantial reforms and the uniform Penny Postage was introduced. A single rate for delivery anywhere in the UK was paid by the sender. To certify that postage had been paid on a letter, the sender would affix the first adhesive Stamp , the Penny Black . 1960 to present ]] In 1969 the GPO was changed from a government department to a state-owned company, and the position of Postmaster General was abolished. In 2000 , The Post Office renamed itself "Consignia". However, the change proved to be highly unpopular with both the public and even the organisation's own employees, with the Communication Workers' Union boycotting the name. In 2002, the organisation reverted to the name "Royal Mail Group plc" with the following operating divisions:
In 2001 the government set up a postal regulator, Postcomm , and offered licences to private companies to deliver mail. In 2001, the Consumer Council for Postal Services, more commonly known as Postwatch , was created for consumers to express any concerns they may have with the postal service in the UK. From January 1 , 2006 , the Royal Mail lost its 350-year monopoly and the UK's postal market became fully open to competition. Fleet Royal Mail operates the following aircraft - 1x Boeing 737-3YO Timeline . It is marked ''ER'' for ''Edvardvs Rex'' ( Edward VII ).]]
NON-POSTAL SERVICES Royal Mail introduced telegraph services in 1870 and Telephone services in 1912 . It remained responsible for the UK's telephone network until British Telecommunications was demerged by the British Telecommunications Act 1981 . BT was later privatised. The National Giro Bank was introduced in 1968, and sold to Alliance & Leicester in 1990 . Historically, many government benefits and State Retirement Pension s were paid in cash through the post office network. However, in recent years, an increasing proportion of benefit and pension payments have been made directly by Bank Transfer . SEE ALSO REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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