Postal licences and operators

Postcomm is responsible for licensing postal operators.

Since it is the dominant company in the market, Royal Mail's licence conditions include provisions that do not apply to other licensed operators - for example, pricing and quality of service conditions. (More information on Royal Mail standards and prices.)

But there are minimum obligations everyone must meet. Companies applying for licences must consider:

• conveyance and delivery - operators must convey and deliver letters and report on their performance compared to their contract obligations,
• mail integrity - operators must have sound arrangements, appropriate for their business, for protecting mail and delivering it safely.  

The licensing system we use must also take into account the way that postal operators will need to work together in the fully open market. On 1 January 2006, a licensing framework was implemented that was designed to make the multi-operator market work effectively, and balancing the need to encourage new entrants to the mail market with our reponsibility for protecting customers' interests.

In January 2008, the licensing framework was amended with a view to encouraging small and medium-sized operators into the market. Key features of the amendment were:

• the removal of the annual fee (formerly £1,000) for all licensees with a turnover of less than £10 million per annum in the licensed area
• the reduction of the application fee (formerly £1,000) to £50 for all applicants
• the removal of the requirement for applicants to provide, as part of the application process, information on exactly how they would comply with Postcomm's mandatory mail integrity code, and
• the removal of the requirement for both existing licensees and future applicants to provide a financial guarantee. 

Our site also includes some information on mail industry suppliers.