It collects items directly from its 113,000 post boxes, 14,300 post office branches and from some 87,000 businesses. These items pass through Royal Mail's network of mail centres, regional distribution centres (for customer sorted mail) and delivery offices. Then its fleet of more than 30,000 red vehicles and 33,000 bicycles help it to deliver them to their final destination.

In Peterborough its team is made up of 127 managers and 2,382 postmen and women with responsibility for mail deliveries across the PE postcode area, from Skegness to St Neots and Hunstanton across to Oundle, delivering six days a week to more than 330,000 business and residential addresses.

Royal Mail is a sponsor for The ET Business Awards: nominate your business
Closing date for entries is Friday, September 12, 2008.
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At the heart of Royal Mail is the one-price-goes-anywhere universal postal service. This means that no matter where customers live or where their mail is going in the UK, it charges the same price. It is a unique service that is particularly important for people in rural areas.

The organisation uses postcodes to identify where an item is going, helping it to sort mail efficiently and deliver it faster. It makes deliveries six days a week by around lunchtime, although many customers receive their mail much earlier than this, and it aims to complete rural deliveries by about 3pm.

For business customers, Royal Mail also provides a range of mail-related data tools to improve its marketing performance and increase the effectiveness of mail as a communication medium. For example, by simply using more efficient database maintenance and well-targeted customer contact management Royal Mail can help customers achieve better response rates and a higher return on their investment.

New products and services include Tracked, which allows the movement of parcels and packets through the Royal Mail network to be tracked and Online Business Account which enables business customers to handle their accounts electronically instead of by dockets.

More new services are planned as the company strengthens further its focus on customer service.

For small and medium-sized businesses with up to 250 staff, Royal Mail has a wide range of dedicated mailing products, resources and expertise.

The Mailing Toolkit is one example of products to take the strain from businesses. Designed to make managing mail as simple as possible, it has all Royal Mail's most popular business tools, products and services in one place.

And for businesses not sure where to start the Postal MOT is an ideal first step.

Royal Mail's aim continues to be demonstrably the best and most trusted mail company in the world.