ROYAL MAIL is to lose the remainder of its monopoly next January, leaving the organisation vulnerable to competition on all fronts for the first time in 350 years.
Postcomm yesterday confirmed plans to open the entire market to competition from next January, 16 months ahead of initial plans to bring rivals into the postal market. The postal regulator has been consulting Royal Mail about the shift to an open market for several months and the postal group agreed to the change.
Originally it had been planned to open another section of the business post market to competition this spring and then move to full competition by 2007. But the regulator signalled a change to this approach several months ago when it became clear that Royal Mail’s finances were improving. Royal Mail has agreed to the shift.
At present the postal operator is open to competition only for bulk mail items involving mailings of more than 4,000 items.
Nigel Stapleton, chairman of Postcomm, said that the move would make Royal Mail more efficient but it was only the first stage in a process that should eventually “see market forces replace regulation as the main driver of an efficient and effective mail industry”.
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Postwatch, the consumers’ group, said: “Full competition will reinforce, not undermine, the delivery of the universal service.”