Royal Mail announces proposals for updated PAF licence

by Lucy Fisher, Marketing Direct 07-Nov-08, 13:00

LONDON - Royal Mail has announced initial proposals for the new Postcode Address File (PAF) licence. Based on feedback from users, the aim is for the new licence to work better for businesses.

Says Giles Finnemore, head of marketing at the Royal Mail's Address Management Unit: "We are holding a formal consultation period and encourage all PAF users to share their views on the proposals so that we can ensure that the final licence agreement is an accurate representation of the requirements of the current marketplace."

PAF contains all known UK residential and business delivery addresses and postcodes. The formal consultation period ends on 24th December, and will be published, along with a new price tariff, in April 2009. The changes will be ‘revenue neutral' for Royal Mail and will come into effect from September 2009.

The proposed changes include a reduction of the ‘per user' fee, the introduction of multiple user bands and unlimited internal transaction licensing, reduced data supply prices and extended user group options. Resellers will be able to stay on their existing agreements until 31 December 2009.

PAF was originally designed to help Royal Mail postmen and women route and deliver mail. But since its introduction almost 50 years ago, the way in which it is used has grown. As well as being used by direct marketing and date capture companies, mail order and online retailers use it to help process orders, while financial services organisations rely on it to calculate car and home insurance assessments.

Said Terry Hiles, managing director of Capscan: "An interesting development is the extension of the new extended user group option. It is less tight than the former, associated user groups, which applied only to car dealerships or franchises, for example, which work under a common brand.

"There are new areas of flexibility but although some areas were meant to be simplified, some haven't been. The administrative processes required are complex and I will be making comments. In some areas it's a move forward, in others we've stood still or even gone backwards - especially in the area of administrative burden."

Stuart Johnston, UK managing director of Experian QAS, said that heavy users will end up paying more, and light users less: "Some will be worse off, some better off," he said, "But this is a reasonable proposition."

He also expressed concerns about the administrative burden and charges as people move from one licence to another, but said that the changes were necessary. "I have asked Royal Mail what will happen if their prices are wrong, and been told that there's been a cap of 5% either way. If too much is collected, we'd expect prices to fall," he added.