Today we have launched a consultation putting forward Royal Mail’s proposal to introduce a new change provision in the Access Letters Contract (ALC) to allow us to reflect and implement changes that Ofcom sets out in its decision document on the reform of the Universal Service in a timely manner.

If Ofcom ultimately decides to make regulatory changes, Royal Mail will need to work at pace to implement such changes across our network to ensure we can deliver a modern, reliable service to our customers. Therefore, and without pre-empting Ofcom’s processes and decisions, we believe it is necessary to ensure that whatever Ofcom’s eventual decision is, that outcome should be capable of being implemented in the ALC in a timely manner. To that end we look to amend the ALC to enable such potential changes.

This consultation seeks your views on the introduction of a new change provision into the ALC which would enable Royal Mail to make changes to the ALC on 70 days’ notice to reflect Ofcom’s decision (with such changes exempt from any consultation obligation). The full consultation document can be found here.

We value your views and want to ensure they are considered carefully as part of this engagement exercise. Therefore, we encourage you to send us your views by 7 August 2024. Please send your feedback to Ravi Chauhan (Access Contract Manager) at ravi.chauhan@royalmail.com.

If you have any queries regarding the consultation contact your Account Director.

Following the closing date for comments, we will consider the responses with a view to finalising our proposals and sharing these with you in the form of a response document by 19 September 2024. During this period of dialogue, Royal Mail will seek to engage with all customers directly wherever possible to ensure a full understanding of their views.

Other commercial priorities

We would like to engage with customers on a number of other changes that may flow from any USO reform. 

Therefore, separately from this consultation, we are planning to run an engagement exercise with customers. Your Account Director will be in touch with you shortly to arrange the sessions.