Overview
- The postal service advises put the recipient name and full address on the bottom-left of the front of an envelope or parcel so optical character recognition scanners can read it without manual handling.
- Stamps must sit in the top-right corner of the front so machines can confirm postage; placing a stamp elsewhere can push items into slower manual sorting.
- If postage is short, recipients may be asked to pay the missing amount plus a surcharge that starts at £1.50 for letters and items are held for 18 days while payment or a return is arranged.
- Senders should include a clearly labelled return address on the back, write addresses left-aligned with no commas or full stops, use high-contrast ink or a plain white label, and avoid adding phone numbers or email addresses for privacy.
- Royal Mail also warns that stamps can only be used once and that reuse is treated as fraud; this guidance is a restatement of existing operational rules intended to cut delays and extra charges for customers.