This year Royal Mail is
commemorating the 500th
anniversary of the knighting
of Brian Tuke, the first
Master of the Posts, by Henry
VIII, an event that it says was
the catalyst for the creation
of Royal Mail as we know it.
To celebrate, Royal Mail
has issued a special set of
stamps and, in conjunction
with the British Postal Museum
& Archive (BPMA), has created
an online gallery of 500
objects, people and events that
help tell the story of the postal
service and its contribution to
society. Key dates include:
1516:
Henry VIII knights
Brian Tuke, the first Master of
the Posts. Tuke is given the
authority to establish key post
towns across the UK and build
a formal postal network.
1635:
The postal service
is opened up to the general
public by King Charles I.
Before, it operated only for
the King and Court. A Letter
Office is established in
London and six post roads
are formalised to carry mail
across the country.
1660:
The Post Office Act
creates the publicly-owned
postal service.
1661:
The first Bishop mark
(or postmark) is used to
identify the date of dispatch.
It is named after the then
Postmaster General, Henry
Bishop.
1711:
The Post Office Act
paves the way for a unified
postal service across Scottish
and English administrations
(inc. Wales) following the
1707 Act of Union. Ireland
followed in 1808.
1840:
The reform – over a
number of years – of the Post
Office by Rowland Hill and
others forms the basis of the
modern postal service.
1840:
The Penny Black, the
first adhesive postage stamp,
is launched. The introduction
of the Penny Post marks
the origins of the Universal
Service, under which postal
rates become uniform
across the country, and
heralds massive expansion
in the popularity of mail. Mail
volumes rise from 67 million
in 1839 to 242 million by
1844 and more than one
billion by 1875.
1883:
The launch of Parcel
Post reflects the popularity
of sending and receiving
parcels. The growth of parcels
sees the term ‘Letter Carrier’
replaced with ‘postman’.
1911:
The first scheduled
airmail service flies from
Hendon to Windsor, as part
of the celebrations for the
Coronation of King George V.
1959:
Postcodes are
introduced on a trial basis in
Norwich and then rolled out
nationally from 1965-1972.
Find out more at
com/500years.
Printers more
optimistic despite
pressure on margins
Even with tighter margins,
falling prices and an
incomplete recovery from the
2008 financial crisis, printers
are increasingly optimistic
about their prospects,
according to the third
drupa
Global Trends Report
(2016).
Analysis of the views of
750 printers in the three years
leading up to drupa 2016
shows that in 2015 there
was a 25 percentage point
difference between printers
who thought they were doing
well (37%) and printers who
thought they were doing badly
(12%).
When asked, how they
thought their financial situation
would change in 2016, 50%
thought it would get better
compared to 6% who thought it
would deteriorate – a positive
balance of 44%. Optimism is
greatest in Africa, Australia/
Oceania, Middle East and
Asia and in commercial and
industrial printing.
Digital printing technologies
are showing the fastest
growth (28% on average), but
sheet-fed offset lithography is
also growing, particularly in
publishing, with a net positive
growth of 7%, and in packaging
(+12%).
Digital print now makes up
25% or more of turnover in
one third (35%) of commercial
printers.
Printers and suppliers
both cited strong competition
as the biggest constraint to
growth. Lack of sales was
almost as big a factor, caused
by the difficulty in finding new
customers (58%) or good
sales staff (35%).
The report is available
for download from the drupa
website.
Royal Mail commemorates genesis
of modern postal service
BULLETIN
10
PRINT.IT
01732 759725
The pen best for
creativity
Four out of five start-ups
(82%) use pens, paper
and whiteboards daily
to encourage creativity,
as well as computers,
tablets, mobile phones
and interactive projectors
(86%), according to a
new report by Epson.
Even 73% of ‘digital
natives’ (18-24 year-olds)
admit they use pens,
paper, whiteboards and
writing tools for creative
purposes. Entrepreneurs
said they prefer to write
by hand than type,
because it’s quicker and
easier (73%), enhances
creative thinking (63%)
and helps employees
remember information
better (74%).
Pitney Bowes brings
Clarity to production mail
Pitney Bowes is hoping to bring greater insight,
analytics and visibility to production mail applications with the
launch of the first commercially available solution to emerge from
its collaboration with GE.
Hosted in the cloud on GE’s Predix platform, the Clarity
solutions suite integrates and organises data collected from
sensors on production mail machines to help clients improve
efficiency and productivity.
Jason Dies, President of Pitney Bowes Document Messaging
Technologies, said: “In its simplest form, production mail is about
getting the right information in the right envelope to the right
customer at precisely the right time millions of times each day.
It is an industry measured in tenths-of-pennies and fractions-
of-seconds. Clarity provides our clients with a view of their
operations and our industry on a micro and global level that was
never before visible – from the performance of a specific motor
on a single machine to the productivity benchmarks of leading
print and mail operations around the world.”
