But the Royal Mail service in Britain is not one to be considered old and stuffy.

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The delivery service, part of the Royal Mail Group, apologised for the failure in the system which allowed people using the mail tracing service access to the name, postcode and signature at various addresses.

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"The Royal Mail has resurrected a service which it used to provide until 1988, " said Postmaster Mike Williams.

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Separately, Mr Crozier has argued that the Royal Mail's universal service obligation - under which it is required to charge a single price to deliver letters anywhere in the UK - should be relaxed in order to help it compete in the deregulated market.

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Royal Mail praised its delivery staff for the improved service at the beginning of this year, saying radical business changes it had made had improved its performance, and predicting more improvements.

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It would be true of putting Royal Mail on a path to privatisation with the postal service's decision to take advantage of new freedoms to significantly increase the price of stamps.

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This year the Royal Mail agreed to waive postal charges for items being sent to service personnel abroad.

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Royal Mail started to use the alphanumeric codes when electronic sorting machines were introduced to speed up the service in the 1950s.

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"It's clear that the more delivery work which is done by private companies, the less there will be for Royal Mail, and core services could suffer with higher prices and lower service standards, " said CWU deputy general secretary Dave Ward.

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