Access agreements

Royal Mail's vast size presents a significant barrier to entry for rival operators. This is especially true in delivery, where, over its 350 year history, the company has built up a network that delivers to almost every residential and business address in the country.

A key part of opening up the postal market for competition has been allowing "access" to that delivery network.

Access means allowing mail users (usually big business users) and licensed postal operators to make commercial agreements with Royal Mail allowing them to use the company's staff and facilities to carry post for part of its journey.

For licensed operators, access can provide a launch pad to build up their contacts with customers, as well as the volumes necessary to consider developing an end-to-end (collection through to delivery) network. For mail users, the benefit is a greater choice of operators - and therefore more choice of products and services.

So far, access has been to Royal Mail's sorting centres, where mail is sorted ready for final delivery. Mail users or postal operators would collect and/or pre-sort mail before feeding it into Royal Mail's systems at these local sorting centres.

Royal Mail is required to negotiate "access agreements" with any large mailer or rival licensed operator. These are commercial agreements, negotiated independently of Postcomm. (Details of individual access agreements are available on Royal Mail's website.) But if organisations are unable to agree with Royal Mail a fair price for access, we can to intervene to ensure that it is made available on appropriate terms.

Postcomm has received two requests from operators for access to be made available on appropriate terms. These are UK Mail and TNT Post.

The first access agreement was negotiated between Royal Mail and UK Mail in 2004. Since then, more agreements have been set up and, according to Royal Mail's latest figures (December 2007), approximately 336 million items of mail per month are now handled under access arrangements.

  • Postcomm has recently consulted on what problems - if any - exist with the current access framework. Responses to this consultation were required by 17 March 2008.
  • List of access-related documents, including Postcomm guidance on licensing exemptions that may apply to some postal operators involved in access arrangements (listed at 6 June 2007).
  • Postcomm's series of downloadable factsheets on key issues in the mail market includes a brief guide to access.