Universal service

The universal service means that anyone in the UK can post letters and parcels to any other part of the country at the same affordable rates. And it guarantees one delivery of mail for every UK household and business, each working day, and one collection of mail, six days a week.

Royal Mail's licence requires it to provide universal postal services. 

Postcomm’s most important job is to protect the universal service. We assess the impact of every Postcomm policy against the ability to maintain the universal postal service across the UK.

Postcomm is responsible for defining the scope of the universal service - and recognises that the service may need to change over time, as postal users’ requirements change – as well as assessing its cost and benefit to Royal Mail. Our delivery exceptions page explains why there is a small number of exceptions to Royal Mail's universal service obligation to deliver to every address, each working day.

Our series of downloadable factsheets includes a brief guide to Postcomm's work on the universal postal service.