Editing Mailsort (section)

==Use==

Mailsort was not widely known to the British public and the code was not written as part of the address; rather it appears elsewhere on the envelope or label. Although the majority of people in the UK use the [[postcode]], the mailsort code was used for automated sorting.

As the system was only used by a closed group of Royal Mail customers the scheme could be entirely re-coded from time to time (every 18–24 months). The last such update occurred in September 2010.

Unlike posting by ordinary mail it was possible to specify service levels other than 1st or 2nd class with longer delivery times offered. Four Mailsort products were available – known as 70, 120, 700 and 1400 – each based on the customer's ability to sort into increasingly smaller geographical areas. A further '''Walksort''' product was available to those who wished to post to many of the addresses in an area<ref>{{Cite FTP |url=ftp://ftp.royalmail.com/Downloads/public/cmwalk/doc/active/doc9900003/Walksort%20Rate%20Card%202nd_April_2007.pdf|title=Walksort Rate Card|format=PDF|server=[[Royal Mail]] Walksort Rate Card (April 2007)|url-status=dead|access-date=2009-10-02}}</ref> and who could present mail sorted first by mailsort code and then by walk number (the second half of the postcode).

===Service levels===

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Level||Service||Requirements
|-
|Mailsort 1 ||delivery the next working day after the day of posting||sorted into Mailsort sequence
|-
|Mailsort 2 ||delivery three working days after the day of posting|| sorted into Mailsort sequence
|-
|Mailsort 3||delivery within seven working days after the day of posting||sorted into Mailsort sequence
|-
|Walksort 1||delivery the next working day after the day of posting|| sorted into Mailsort sequence and walk sequence
|-
|Walksort 2||delivery three working days after the day of posting||sorted into Mailsort sequence and walk sequence
|}

Two further services — Presstream 1 and Presstream 2 — were available to publishers of magazines and other periodicals. These services were similar to Mailsort 1400 but offered a greater discount for publications that met certain criteria and had been successfully registered with Royal Mail.