Royal Mail
postal service,logistics
| Royal Mail link () | |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1516 |
| Headquarters | London, England, UK |
International Distributions Services plc (formerly Royal Mail plc), trading as Royal Mail, is a British multinational postal service and courier company, originally established in 1516 as a government department.
The company provides mail collection and delivery services throughout the UK. For most of its history, the Royal Mail was a public service, operating as a government department or public corporation. Following the Postal Services Act 2011, a majority of the shares in Royal Mail were floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2013. The UK government initially retained a 30% stake in Royal Mail, but sold its remaining shares in 2015, ending 499 years of state ownership.[1]
Tracking
After January 2023, all regular Royal Mail stamps have a barcode creating a digital surveillance of all small mail items. Old stamps without a barcode were made invalid.[2]