Royal Mail is the single largest deliverer of unaddressed junk mail in the UK; roughly one in four leaflets is pushed through the letter box by the postman. In this section you can find out everything there is to know about the door-to-door 'service'.
Let's start with the most important information. To opt out of leaflets delivered by the postman, you need to contact Royal Mail and ask them for a 'door-to-door opt-out form':
When you complete and return the form you should stop receiving unaddressed items delivered by Royal Mail within six weeks time. The process can be speeded up by sending Royal Mail our very own door to door opt-out form:
Opting out will stop all unaddressed items delivered by the postman, including items with a generic address, such as 'To the Occupier'. Please note however that 'To the Occupier' items which also include a full address will still be delivered. Such items are classes as direct mail rather than unaddressed mail.
Royal Mail has never made it entirely clear what a door-to-door item is and to this day there is much confusion about the consequences of opting out. In principle, a door-to-door item can be anything that does not have your name and address on it. Although this is usually simply junk mail, it can also be an item most people do want, such as information from you local council about refuse collections.
Unfortunately, Royal Mail has never made a distinction between commercial advertisements and genuine information. And the company has made good use of this lack of clarity. The opt-out form you will receive will warn you that if you decide to opt out, you may miss 'important information from local and national Government'.
Postwatch, the watchdog for postal services in the UK, has accused Royal Mail of trying to deter customers from opting out by using 'scare tactics' and has condemned the warning as 'unnecessarily worrying'. Our advice is also to just ignore the warning. It is unlikely that important information is ever sent using the door-to-door scheme, if only because more and more people are opting out. If local or national Government has something important to tell you, they will make sure that the information is widely available – door-to-door leaflets are just one of many ways in which local and national Government can communicate.