Rival UK mail operators rubberstamp historic deal

An historic agreement that will shake up Britain's postal system was agreed today by the Royal Mail and rival Business Post.

Royal Mail will charge 13p a letter to deliver business mail for UK Mail, a subsidiary of Business Post.

UK Mail will collect post from its customers for delivery to Britain's 83 mail centres.

Royal Mail's service will take over the delivery then for the so-called 'final mile'.

The agreement will primarily affect large business customers of UK mail who typically post more than 10,000 letters a day.

Royal Mail is currently in the middle of a three-year restructuring programme that has seen thousands of redundancies and numerous strikes and disruption to services.

Critics have argued that opening up the postal system could allow operators to cherry-pick profitable elements of the postal service and plunge the Royal Mail into further chaos.

The deal between the two rival postal operators is the first of its kind in Europe.