The United Kingdom was one of the first in the world to establish an organised postal service, and in turn a specialised parcel delivery system. The actual history and timeline of parcel delivery services in Great Britain is somewhat sketchy and unclear, but the essential facts are well known and documented. Some historic accounts date back the first parcel delivery service in the United Kingdom as far back as the early sixteen hundreds. Originally, the institution responsible for parcel deliveries across the lands of the United Kingdom was known as the General Post Office or GPO for short. The general post office was founded by King Charles II in England, in sixteen sixty. Around the same time, similar offices were established in other territories of the British Empire. Later on, the general post office system was abolished in favour of the Post Office. In the years to follow, the Post Office took official control over parcel delivery and monopolised the collection, carriage and delivery of letters and parcels across the United Kingdom.
In the seventeen hundreds, the sites where parcels could be left for transport and delivery became known as Penny Posts and began appearing in more and more places. Their official establishment and operation was put in effect by a British Parliament decision in seventeen sixty five. Regulations in those early days, burdened the receiver with the cost of transporting and delivering the parcel in question. This however meant that if the recipient did not wish to receive and accept the package, they were at no obligation to pay for it, which by the way happened quite a lot. In the early days of the British post office, its charging system was incredibly complicated and quite confusing. The fee for sending letters was based on the number of sheets the letter contained, and the distance it had to travel to its intended recipient. This made postage rates quite high and unaffordable for most people. In result, written communication became increasingly confusing and unintelligible as people were trying to cram as much written information as possible on as few sheets of paper as possible.
In an effort to optimise the letter delivery system in Great Britain, the government reformed the Penny Post in eighteen forty and introduced Universal Penny Post as it was known. The new changes reduced complexity and mailing costs through the use of uniformed adhesive stamp system. The system was better and more efficient in terms of calculating the cost of each letter as the number and value of stamps corresponded to the costs of transporting and delivering the letter to its intended destination or recipient. The new system however, was only limited to mailing of letters and other written correspondence.
In an effort to optimise the letter delivery system in Great Britain, the government reformed the Penny Post in eighteen forty and introduced Universal Penny Post as it was known. The new changes reduced complexity and mailing costs through the use of uniformed adhesive stamp system. The system was better and more efficient in terms of calculating the cost of each letter as the number and value of stamps corresponded to the costs of transporting and delivering the letter to its intended destination or recipient. The new system however, was only limited to mailing of letters and other written correspondence.
Naturally, the matter of charging and regulating parcel deliveries also sprung up, only a couple of years later in eighteen forty two. Although the government took on the challenge of devising and implementing a proper parcel delivery system across the United Kingdom, it wasn’t until eighteen eighty three that the official Parcel Post was consolidated into its own entity. Of course, before the establishment of the Parcel Post, sending packages was also possible, it was more expensive and not as straightforward. At that time, there were a number of large courier companies operating stagecoaches across the United Kingdom, the stagecoach became the vehicle of choice for couriers everywhere. It is the development of stagecoaches that made parcel delivery truly possible in the United Kingdom. And would you believe it nowadays, to get man and van in London is simply taken for granted. The stagecoach system, well its early versions, were actually used to transport mail between ‘post offices’ across the UK as early as the sixteen thirties. Back then, the postmaster would review the letters and parcels delivered, separate the ones pending local distribution, and then add parcels and letters from local senders destined for other locations along the stagecoach route.
After the eighteen twenties, improvement in road structure greatly reduced delivery times for parcels and letters. As coaches were racing at an average speed of twelve miles per hour, now letters and parcels could be delivered in hours! One issue that slowed down the coaches and made them unreliable at times was highway men. The coaches were frequently robbed of their contents, certain roads in the United Kingdom were notorious for their highway men gangs for many years. The end of free postal enterprise was brought on by the arrival of the railways. The rich and powerful railway companies made parcel and letter delivery fast, reliable and cheaper. The delivery market was officially monopolised by the railways by the mid eighteen hundreds. All other parcel and letter delivery services simply could not match the speed, reliability and efficiency of mail by rail and most of them died out by the end of the eighteen fifties.
After the eighteen twenties, improvement in road structure greatly reduced delivery times for parcels and letters. As coaches were racing at an average speed of twelve miles per hour, now letters and parcels could be delivered in hours! One issue that slowed down the coaches and made them unreliable at times was highway men. The coaches were frequently robbed of their contents, certain roads in the United Kingdom were notorious for their highway men gangs for many years. The end of free postal enterprise was brought on by the arrival of the railways. The rich and powerful railway companies made parcel and letter delivery fast, reliable and cheaper. The delivery market was officially monopolised by the railways by the mid eighteen hundreds. All other parcel and letter delivery services simply could not match the speed, reliability and efficiency of mail by rail and most of them died out by the end of the eighteen fifties.
For many decades, the monopoly of parcel and letter delivery in the United Kingdom was held by Royal Mail. It was only in two thousand six, that the government and Postcomm allowed for certain deregulation measures to break up the market so to speak. This actually turned out to be a huge moment for independent parcel and letter delivery in the UK. Prior to the regulation changes of two thousand six, only about thirty percent of the four and a half billion pound market was open for competition. One of the biggest disadvantages faced by non-Royal Mail operators was that they could only work with letter batches of four thousand or more units, similar restrictions were applied to non-Royal mail parcel deliverers. The deregulations allowed for existing companies to become more competitive and find their footing in the market. The changes also allowed for new companies to be formed in order to diversify the segment and make it more customer-friendly. Many of the newly formed operators don’t require customers to sign up for business accounts or other similar means of involvement.