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Access Letters Contract (effective until 31 December 2022)

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Below you will find the Access Letters Contract which was effective until 31 December 2022, and is now superseded by the contract version on the Access Letters Contracts page. 

Access Letters Contract (effective until 31 December 2022)


Letters Optional Schedules (effective until 31 December 2022)

Consultation on changes to the Access Letters Contract 2021

  1. In October 2020 we consulted on a number of commercial and operational improvement opportunities for the Access Letters Contract. You can also access the full consultation document here.


  3. On 31 August 2021 we issued our decision document following consideration of Wholesale customers' feedback which you can find here.


    We are now pleased to issue the revised ALC terms which will become effective from 16 June 2022.

    I would like to thank those customers who provided valuable feedback as part of our review. We have carried out an extensive review of the existing ALC terms, including the Access User Guide, with a view to consolidating and restructuring the terms and simplifying them overall. We have also simplified the language and transferred all process and specification points from the optional schedule to the Access User Guide. As a result, both the ALC and the Access User Guide will be nearly half the size compared to the existing terms.

    Additionally, the revised terms reflect the decisions pertaining to notice periods; limitation of claim periods; amendments to the assignment clause; introduction of a sanctions clause; labelling requirements; standardisations of segregation by format; and standardisation of early release, as communicated to you in the decision document and our subsequent letter of 26 October 2021.

    Change notice number 087 gives effect to the amendments and we also provide links below to the following key documents:

    1. The amended ALC and Agency Customer Contract Terms;
    2. The amended Access User Guide;
    3. A summary document outlining the key changes we have made to the ALC including a comparison of the amendments to key clauses; and
    4. A colour coded version of the existing ALC  which indicates the amendments we have made, plus commentary on where certain provisions have been relocated to and those which we have removed; and
    5. A colour coded version of the existing User Guide which indicates the amendments we have made, including provisions that have been relocated and those which have been removed.


    UPDATE ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF CONTRACT CHANGE NOTICE NUMBER 087 - 29 NOVEMBER 2022


    We wrote to you on 8 June 2022 to let you know we were deferring the implementation of Access Letters Contract (ALC) Change Notice Number 087 (CCN087) to allow time for us to fully understand concerns raised by some customers in respect of some changes being made under CCN087.
    We are pleased to announce that those concerns have now been alleviated and CCN087 will take effect from 1 January 2023.


  5.  

    Why we deferred its implementation

    Following the publication of CCN087, we received feedback from some customers regarding some of the amends we made to simplify the structure and wording of the ALC (please refer to section 3 of our decision document which details the decision we took, subsequent to the consultation, to simplify the contract).

    After careful consideration, we decided to defer the implementation of CCN087, to allow time for us to fully understand any concerns and engage with customers on this matter.


    Outcome of discussions with customers

    Royal Mail takes its contractual and regulatory obligations very seriously, and we have worked with customers to find a resolution to be able to move forward. While we believe we have at all times acted in compliance with our obligations, as a result of these discussions, we have decided to withdraw a few of the amendments made under CCN087. All other amendments as were notified on 30 November 2021 will remain.


    The revised ALC, Access User Guide and Agency Customer Contract will take effect on 1 January 2023. You can find versions of these documents via the links below, which show the amendments which we are revoking in tracked changes:


    1. The amended ALC and Agency Customer Contract;
    2. The amended Access User Guide. 


The final version of the documents can be found on the Access Letters Contract page.