Redirections

Every year, 1.3 million households and businesses use Royal Mail’s redirections service and, on average, there are 900,000 redirections “live” on the company’s books at any time.

Redirections are an important part of the universal service – the fundamental set of postal products and services that Royal Mail is obliged to provide. Many items of mail are of vital importance to the recipients – hospital appointments, details of job interviews, exam results and legal papers are all routinely sent by post.

When Royal Mail was the only postal operator in the market, redirections were a straightforward business. Every letter that dropped through the door was delivered by Royal Mail. If customers moved to a new home or business address, there was just one postal organisation to notify with a new address.

Although the mail market is now fully open to competition, almost all mail is still delivered by Royal Mail – even if collection and sorting has been handled by a new entrant to the market. But as competition develops, we are likely to start to see more new firms also offering delivery services, so we must make sure that new postal operators can, if they wish, provide their customers with the option of a redirection service. 

That means Postcomm has a job to do in making sure the redirections service continues to run smoothly, by ensuring good systems are in place to allow Royal Mail to share - as necessary - information on address changes.

We have been working with Royal Mail and other interested parties make sure the redirection of mail takes account of competition in the postal services market, and protects the interests of mail users.