Please find attached below details of our forthcoming plans to rename our suite of products in Access to better align to the recent changes made in April relating to the sortation and container type. We hope you can take a moment to consider how our proposal is likely to affect you. 

Please send your feedback to Mike Griffin at mike.griffin@royalmail.com by the 18th May 2012.

Consultation on renaming products

 Consultation product renaming - Annex 1

Please find attached below details of our consultation on the process for requesting access contracts and variations to existing access contracts. 

The Statement of Process needs to address three key areas:

1.  the form in which a request should be made; 
2.  the information that the universal provider reasonably requires in order to consider a  request  for new D+2 Access or a variation to existing D+2 Access; and
3.  the reasonable timescales in which such requests will be handled by the Universal  Service  provider.

In this consultation we therefore seek the views of our customers and other interested parties on these 3 specific issues and we ask for responses to the four questions posed in this short consultation document by the 1st of June 2012.

 Consultation - Statement of Process 

Royal Mail is currently progressing with an ongoing programme of Mail Centre modernisation reviews which involve the closure of some of its smaller Mail Centres, consolidation of larger and more modern Mail Centres as well as the opening of some new Mail Centres. We are pleased to be able to share the information following the latest consultation period with regard to the mail centre modernisation programme.  

2012 - Completed

• Mail for W2-14 Postcode areas which was circulated to London Central Mail Centre is now circulated to Greenford.
• Mail for N Postcode which was circulated to London East Mail Centre is now circulated to London Central.
• Mail for SE1-28 Postcode areas which is currently circulated to London South will be circulated to Croydon from Monday 11th June 2012. Mail for SW postcode remains at London South
• Worcester Mail Centre closes as an Access point for DSA mail. Mail currently circulate for Worcester (WR/HR postcodes) will circulate to Birmingham from Monday 11th June 2012
• Maidstone Mail Centre closes as an Access point for DSA. Mail will be circulated to the New Medway Mail Centre for ME Pstcode mail on 25th June 2012

2012 - Proposed

• The closure of York and Bradford Mail Centres and the transfer of the work to Leeds MC in 2012/13 
• The closure of Darlington and Teesside and the transfer of work to Tyneside in 2012/13 
• The closure of Doncaster in 2012/13 and Hull in 2014/15 and the transfer of work to Sheffield 
• The closure of Southend and the transfer of the work to Chelmsford in 2011 /12 
• The closure of Dartford, Canterbury, Maidstone and Tonbridge and the transfer of work to a new Kent Mail Centre in 2012 

 
No further updates are yet agreed. 

Please contact your Access Account Director for any further information. 

Last July we expressed our intention to print a ‘Delivered by Royal Mail’ mark on all Letter items that passed through Royal Mail’s processing machines with effect from September 2011. It was an initiative designed to give recognition to the dedication of Royal Mail’s postmen and postwomen who do a fantastic job in delivering mail to 29 million addresses across the UK six days a week. We did not implement our proposal in September as intended due to the immediate concerns raised by our customers of the position of the mark on their envelope designs.

We have listened to your concerns and the feedback you provided has helped us to develop an alternative implementation plan that will support customer requirements as well as meet Royal Mail’s objective of recognising the work of its postmen and postwomen.

However, before we make a final decision, we would appreciate some further feedback from you. Based on your ideas, we have created a number of design options around placing the ‘Delivered by Royal Mail’ mark within the Access Indicium which you can view in the attached consultation.

Please send your responses to Jenny Ledgar before the 3^rd March 2012.
 

We look forward to hearing from you!
 

  Consultation Access Indicia2 Feb2012.pdf

Our regulator, Ofcom has published its decision document on the future regulatory framework for Access services. We can now confirm the Access prices which we published on 9^th January 2012 will come into effect from 2^nd April 2012 as indicated.
We can also confirm that Access Packet services (including A3 Packets) and Access Premium services will not be price controlled, as we indicated to you on the 27^th January 2012, which means that these Access services will now become subject to 20% VAT with effect from 2^nd April 2012.

The Access services affected are those as detailed in our letter of 19^th March 2012 and are listed below in the attached document. You should note that where Royal Mail invoices reflect a particular surcharge relating to non-compliant Access mailing items that the surcharge will be treated for VAT purposes the same as the original service declared e.g. if a customer has their missorted items forwarded at a surcharge of First Class STL, in accordance with the Access Agreement, the customer will not be charged VAT on the missorted Standard Access Letter and Large Letter items but will be charged VAT on A3 Packets and Packets items and on Access Premium items. Hence you will note ‘STL Vatable’ appears in the miscellaneous list of services below.

 
 Access Prices & VAT April 2012 - Services

Royal Mail Wholesale has concluded its proposals to change the definition of the National Geographic Posting Profile (NGPP) upon which all National Access Agreements are based. Our final decisions are formed from the result of consulting and meeting with our customers and related trade associations whose views we value and have taken into consideration. The proposals are made in the context of harmonising Access charges for National postings with Zonal postings and remove the potential for any arbitrage. At the same time we are seeking to make the posting of mail through Royal Mail Wholesale cost effective and efficient, whilst providing customers with a “do nothing” option which will enable them to continue posting as before. The current economic climate and the overall sharp decline in the postal sector of the communications market make these objectives even more vital today.

  NGPP Proposals Final Feb 2011.pdf 

 NGPP Surcharging Calculator 7 5 Tolerance.xls