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Post Offices in London
Royal Mail is the national postal service of the United Kingdom. Historically, the Royal Mail was a government department, but it has been a state-owned company since 1969. Unlike other former state monopolies such as The Stationery Office, British Gas and British Telecom, Royal Mail was not privatised in the 1980s and 1990s, but remains a public limited company wholly owned by the UK government.
A wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Mail is Post Office Limited, which operates the national network of post offices. As the activities of Royal Mail have been reduced, so the network of post offices has contracted, much to the consternation of local communities, which rely on their services.
Royal Mail remains responsible for the universal mail collection and delivery service in the UK. Letters are deposited in a pillar or wall box, taken to a post office, or (by arrangement) collected in bulk from businesses. Deliveries are made once every day (except Sundays and Bank Holidays) at uniform charges for all destinations within the UK.
According to its annual report for the year ended 26 March 2006, Royal Mail delivers 84 million items every working day and has a network of 14,376 post offices. Revenue for the year was £9.056 billion, and profits before tax were £312 million. |
