British Postmark Society
CL Indicia
 

LICENCES FOR POSTAL OPERATORS, ISSUED BY POSTCOMM

Under the Postal Services Act 2000, putting into effect in the UK a Directive from the European Union on the liberalisation of postal markets, the Postal Services Commission (PostComm) was empowered to grant licences to carry letters to any postal operator, the first such licence being that issued to Royal Mail. The licences issued to date are shown in the table below; some companies offer only specialised services in limited markets, while Royal Mail has – as part of its licence – a Universal Service Obligation to provide collection and delivery services at a uniform (and regulated) price throughout the UK.

The further liberalisation of the UK postal market from 1st January 2006 prompted PostComm to issue its mandatory Postal Code of Practice for Common Operational Procedures. As well as covering matters such as the handling of misdirected, redirected and return to sender items within and between operators' networks, the code requires postal items to bear a "Code Identifier", denoting the company accepting them. (Such identifiers bear no relation to Condition 9 Access Indicia, which are controlled by Royal Mail Wholesale).

The Code Identifiers so far allocated by PostComm are as follows:

Code Identifier

Operator

Licence Issued

CL101

Royal Mail Group Ltd

23 March 2001

CL102

TNT Mail – now TNT Post (TPG Post UK Ltd)

23 December 2002

CL103

UK Mail (Business Post group)

12 June 2003

CL104

DHL Global Mail (Speedmail International Ltd)

13 January 2004

CL105

DHL Global Mail (Deutsche Post World Net)*

22 March 2004

CL106

DX Network Services Ltd

23 June 2004

CL107

Secure Mail Services Ltd

24 August 2004

CL108

Citipost AMP Ltd (formerly Alternative Mail & Parcels Ltd)

18 November 2004

CL109

Mail Plus Ltd*

17 February 2005

CL110

Racer Consultancy Management Services

26 May 2005

CL111

Lynx Mail (trading as Red Star Parcels)

15 August 2005

CL112

Intercity Communications Ltd, London E2

17 August 2005

CL113

Target Express Parcels Ltd (t/a City Link Post

14 October 2005

CL114

Royale Research Ltd, (t/a CMS), London SE15

21 October 2005

CL115

Secured Mail Ltd, Liverpool

4 April 2006

CL116

Challenger Security Services (Admin) Ltd*

5 June 2006

CL117

FedEx (formerly ANC Ltd), Newcastle under Lyme

21 June 2006

CL118

Zip Mail Ltd, London WC2

17 October 2006

CL119

The Mailing House Group Ltd (trading as Northern Mail), Cramlington

11 April 2007

CL120

Document Outsourcing Ltd, Bellshill

13 March 2008

CL121

LDS Cambridge Ltd

2 April 2008

CL122

Peoplepost Ltd, Leyland

7 May 2008

CL123

Post 123, Salford

1 May 2008

CL124

Scotpost, Bonhill, Glasgow

24 July 2008

CL125

Securipost Ltd, Telford

10 February 2009

CL126

City Cycle Couriers, Plymouth

11 March 2009

CL127

CFH Total Document Management, Radstock

11 March 2009

CL128

Cycles 4 U, Burmingham

15 June 2009

CL129

First Scottish Group, Dunfermline

3 July 2009

CL130

Yellow Jersey Delivery Ltd, Coventry

10 August 2009

CL131

Wightpost, Ryde

15 September 2009

CL132

Product Development Corporation, York

2 October 2009

CL133

Enermail, Hull

19 November 2009

CL134

Regional Mail Services, Belfast

19 November 2009

CL135

Cambridge Postal Services

14 December 2009

CL136

Fully Franked Local, Orpington

14 December 2009

CL137

Letterbox Distribution, New Barnet

17 December 2009

CL138

Pedal Post, Kidsgrove

17 December 2009

CL139

APP Logistics, Stevenage

14 January 2010

CL140

Living Active, Eastbourne

12 January 2010

CL141

Cycle Link, Norwich

27 January 2010

CL142

Penny Farthing Couriers, Halesowen

1 February 2010

CL143

Go Post – Glasgow’s Own Post

27 January 2010

CL144

Lewis Direct Mail Marketing, London N1

15 February 2010

CL145

City East Post, London E13

15 February 2010

CL146

Bolton Logistics, Bolton

18 February 2010

CL147

The Satellite Distribution Co., London NW6

24 February 2010

CL148

Cyclepost Ltd, Warwick

25 February 2010

CL 149

Parcelpoint Ltd, Liverpool

25 February 2010

CL 150

A McLay & Co, Cardiff

5 March 2010

CL151

A K Carriers, Gillingham, Kent

12 March 2010

CL152

D2D Distribution, St Albans

12 March 2010

* Licence no longer current

Exemptions to the obligation to show a Code Identifier apply to mail bearing a Royal Mail payment indicator (e.g. stamp, meter mark, SmartStamp/On Line Postage, PPI) or a downstream access indicium. This means that the CL indicators listed above will normally be used only on items carried from end to end by the operator concerned. This might be from collection to delivery, or from arrival in the UK to delivery in the case of mail originating overseas. Given the exemptions noted, it is difficult to envisage circumstances in which CL101 might be used by Royal Mail. There are no designs specified by PostComm, other than the requirement for the Code Identifier to be clearly distinguishable for the operators' branding, and not to be reversed out of the background colour.


Page updated 20th March 2010

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