Huge change to Royal Mail deliveries from TOMORROW as part of massive shake-up
Starting from tomorrow, Monday, July 28, second class letters will be delivered on alternate weekends and not on Saturday's.
Under current one-price-goes-everywhere USO rules the postal service has to deliver post six days a week, from Monday to Saturday.
The Universal Service Obligation (USO) requires Royal Mail to deliver letters and parcels to all UK addresses at a uniform price, regardless of location.
It also must drop off parcels on five days from Monday to Friday.
The shake-up was revealed earlier this month, after Ofcom said reform was needed as people are sending less post.
As a result, stamp prices keep rising and the cost of delivering letters goes up.
The industry regulator said first-class mail should land on doorsteps six days a week.
But starting from July 28, second-class letters will be delivered on alternate weekends.
Letters will still be delivered within three working days of collection - Monday to Friday.
The change follows a consultation with thousands of people and businesses from various organisations.
Speaking at the time, Natalie Black, Ofcom's group director for networks and communications said reform of the postal service was "necessary".
It comes after a series of changes at the British postal service.
In April, the cost of a first-class stamp went up by 5p, now costing £1.70. Second-class stamps rose by 2p to 87p.
Meanwhile, posting a first-class large letter up to 100g now costs £3.15, up from £2.60.
And first-class small parcels weighing up to 2kg rose from £4.79 to £4.99, while second-class jumped from £3.75 to £3.90.
WHAT DO THE CHANGES MEAN?
Ofcom has previously said affordability and reliability are more important to Royal Mail customers than the speed of delivery.
But they do value having a next-day service for when they need to send the occasional urgent item.
Ofcom will therefore continue to require the Royal Mail to deliver First Class letters the next working day, Monday to Saturday.
It will also continue to cap the price of a second class stamp.
But Ofcom said customers have told it that most letters are not urgent so they do not need six days a week delivery for the majority of letters.
Ofcom believes that the changes will save Royal Mail between £250million and £425million a year.
The regulator is also making a small change to Royal Mail's existing delivery targets.
Currently it needs to deliver 93% of all first class post the next day but this will be reduced to 90%.
Meanwhile, 95% of all second class mail will now need to be delivered within three days - down from 98.5%.
But many people have said they have experienced long delays where letters have taken weeks to arrive.
To tackle this, Ofcom has set Royal Mail a new backstop that 99% of all mail has to be delivered no more than two days late.
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