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Why does Royal Mail measure quality of service for Access mail?
Royal Mail Wholesale and its customers recognise the importance of having an independent measure of quality to promote the efficient operation of the market in postal services; this enables a performance measure for the medium of post, which competes in the wider communications market.
It is also a regulatory condition for Royal Mail to measure Access quality of service from handover to Royal Mail through to the final delivery address (handover to delivery). The discrete measurement of Access handover to delivery quality of service commenced in April 2007.
Following consultation with customers and other interested parties Royal Mail Wholesale facilitated an independent measurement by TNS-Research International of quality from the point of posting to handover to Royal Mail (Posting to handover).
This independent quality measure commenced in April 2011 and is for the upstream element of mail networks. When the upstream measure is combined with the existing handover to delivery measure this provides a view on End to End performance.
How does Royal Mail measure quality of service for Access mail?
This is managed by an independent research company using a combination of posting and recipient panelists and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) devices. TNS-Research International organises the anonymised seeding of sending customers’ mail and has a group of receiving panelists who record when sample items are delivered. All of TNS-Research International’s work is performed on a completely independent, confidential and statistically valid basis.
How is Royal Mail performance measured?
The independent research company inserts RFID devices in to seed items. Royal Mail mail centres are fitted with gates that interact with the individual RFID devices and record the time and date each time the seed items pass by these gates. This information is sent to the independent research company and is used to measure the point at which mail is handed over from the carrier to Royal Mail. Independent panelists recruited by TNS-Research International record the time of delivery. From time to time Access mail may need to be held by Royal Mail at inward mail centres when contractual conditions have not been met by the posting customer or their carrier. In such circumstances Royal Mail would advise the independent research company and any affected seeds may be removed from the survey
Who decides where sample items are sent?
TNS-Research International, based on achieving statistical validity in terms of volumes, formats and geography.
Is this measure independent from Royal Mail?
Yes. TNS-Research International manages the whole survey and produces the results independently of Royal Mail. These results are provided independently by TNS-Research International to those customers participating in the survey and will be published by Royal Mail Wholesale on this website and provided to Ofcom.
Who are TNS-Research International?
TNS-Research International is an independent contractor and part of the Kantar group of companies, which is part of WPP Plc. WPP is the world leader in communications services and Kantar is one of the world's largest insight, information and consultancy networks. TNS-Research International abides by the requirements of the Market Research Society (MRS) as specified in the MRS Guidelines. The End to End work for Royal Mail meets these requirements. These Guidelines are based on the ethics of the industry in respect of its work, including this 'mystery shopping' style of research.
As a contract holder, if I want to become an Access quality of service sample poster what do I have to do?
Speak to your Access Account Manager, who will ensure your details are passed to TNS-Research International, who may contact you. It is their decision as to what traffic is included in their survey (e.g. TNS-Research International operates a minimum posting volume criterion).
Can we have the contract holder results broken down by originating customers?
Royal Mail does not provide any information to senders of mail posting through a third party, whether or not that third party is formally an agent. However, Royal Mail will provide monthly quality of service figures to the agent (as a contract holder) in relation to their overall postings if they submit seeds as part of TNS-Research International’s survey.
How are results published?
Monthly results are provided to Access contract holders who submit seeds as part of the survey. Overall quality of service results are published by Royal Mail Wholesale on this website and are reported to our regulator Ofcom each quarter and annually.
What compensation scheme is in place for Access mail?
There is a performance rebate amount payable for Access items not meeting the (handover to delivery) compensation target of 92% in the service standard period of a year (April – March), subject to contract. The performance rebate amount is zero for failure within 1% of the compensation target; for each 0.1% failure above 1% that is below the compensation target the rebate amount is 0.1% of the customer's postage charges for every 0.1% failure, up to a maximum of 4%.
What quality of service figures does Royal Mail Wholesale provide for agency customers?
Royal Mail Wholesale publishes its Quality of Service results on this website on a quarterly basis. These results are provided independently by TNS-Research International, which manages all elements of the sampling.
Royal Mail Wholesale does not provide any information to senders of mail who are posting through a third party, whether or not that third party is formally an agent. However, monthly Quality of Service figures will be provided by Royal Mail Wholesale to your agent (as a contract holder) in relation to their overall postings if they submit seeds as part of TNS-Research International’s survey.
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