Industry in brief DIRECTOR OF STRATEGY & POSTAL AFFAIRS, CHARLES NEILSON PROVIDES HIS REGULAR ROUND-UP OF INDUSTRY NEWS.
Ofcommarket review highlights
After nearly four years, the European Commission has finally agreed on the final text for the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). EU strikes deal on data protection rules
At the end of last year, Ofcompublished its annual monitoring update on the UK postal market (for the financial year 2014-15). It reported that the ‘vast majority of consumers are satisfied with their postal services and that prices remain affordable for almost all consumers’.
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regulation shouldmake cross-border data exchange easier and help increase cooperation betweenmember states working to common data protection rules. This will create fair competition and will encourage companies, especially small andmedium- sized enterprises, to get the most out of the digital single market. Those companies that breach EU data protection rules could be fined as much as 4% of their annual turnover, so for global internet companies in particular, this could amount to billions. Following a review of the texts and vote by the EU Parliament and EU Council of Ministers the member states will have two years tomake the necessary provisions before the directive comes into force in spring 2018.
The new privacy regulations aim to enhance the level of protection for individuals
billion items generating revenues of £7.4 billion. The bulk of these, some 1.4 billion items are domestic parcels but
In the letters market the overall volume of addressed items fell by 1.1% to 12.6 billion items in total. Although the decline was slower than in previous years the fall since 2010/11 has been 18% overall. Different parts of the market declined at different rates with DownstreamAccess (DSA) Mail, as carried by Whistl, down by only 1.3% overall, giving DSA 56% of the market by volume. Ofcom noted that the DSA regime operators may have the lion’s share of the volume but they only retain 4% of the total letters revenue. Ofcom has included a monitor on parcels for the first time and as a result has not been able to include all the operators that they would have liked. However it is clear from their findings that the parcels market is in good health in the UK with volumes up 7% to 1.9
whose personal data is processed, and increase
business opportunities in the digital singlemarket by reducing the administrative burden. The good news for marketers is that they will need to get ‘unambiguous’ consent from consumers rather than the stricter ‘explicit’ consent previously proposed in order to use their data for marketing purposes. In other words consent for postal and telephone marketing can still be given on an unsubscribe or opt-out basis. Needless to say the whole
there are also significant volumes and revenues in inbound and outbound
international parcels. Whistl currently provides solutions in both of these markets and is actively expanding its capability in both inbound and outbound streams. Royal Mail claim to have 52% share of the overall parcels market. Overall this is the first year that Royal Mail has reported revenue falls, causedmainly by the price increases not managing to offset its letters volume fall. However on a more positive note Royal Mail reported EBIT at 5.6%, within Ofcom’s range of 5 – 10% guidance for a healthy, financially sustainable USO.
Mail O ering UK
Packets & Parcels National delivery services for UK organisations sending packets and parcels with a range of delivery options. • Pre-sorted • Unsorted • Tracked
International A range of services for sending mail, packets and parcels overseas. • Pre-sorted • Registered • Unsorted • Tracked parcel services
Doordrop Media End-to-end management of doordrop campaigns using analytical insights to target the households you most want to reach, helping your media spend go further.
organisations an innovative range of economic and ecient mail delivery services. • Pre-sorted mail • Unsorted mail • International mail • Hybrid mail
issue of consent will be tightened up and the information given to the
We hope you enjoy readingWhistl Magazine. If you’d like us to feature anything in particular in future issues, or would like to feature as a case study please get in touch using the following contact details.
consumer will need to be clear, using language that is easy to understand. For businesses, the
email whistl.communications@whistl.co.uk write NatalieWalker, Whistl UK Ltd, Meridian House, Fieldhouse Lane, Marlow, Buckinghamshire, SL7 1TB
TO FIND OUT MORE Existing customers contact your account manager New customers call us on 01628 861503 e-mail moreinfo@whistl.co.uk or visit www.whistl.co.uk
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Whistl Magazine • Spring 2016
Whistl Magazine • Spring 2016
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