26-05-2025
Royal Mail faces probe after revealing only 76.5% of its First Class post was delivered on time
Royal Mail is facing a probe from communications regulator Ofcom after it admitted failing to deliver nearly one in four First Class items on time.
Britain's postal service said only 76.5 per cent of First Class letters and parcels arrived within one working day, including Saturdays, in the year to March 2025.
The target for First Class post - the price of which has just risen five pence to £1.70 for a standard stamp, the sixth hike in three years - is 93 per cent.
However, it failed to even meet this target after two working days, with 92.3 per cent arriving within that time frame.
It also delivered 92.2 per cent of Second Class mail within the target of three working days after collection, short of the 98.5 per cent target.
While its performance has improved year on year, bosses at Royal Mail - whose parent firm has just been sold to Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky for £3.6billion - admit it has not been good enough.
And they are set to face questions from Ofcom over whether they are failing to meet the universal service obligation Royal Mail is required to deliver - meaning one-price-goes-anywhere post for the whole of the UK.
The watchdog may impose a financial penalty if it finds the service is failing Brits - having just fined it £10.5million for failing to hit delivery targets last year, and £5.6million for failing to meet targets the year before.
' it clear that when customers are not receiving the level of service they should be, we expect Royal Mail to take appropriate steps to deliver significant and continuous improvement,' Ofcom said of the most recent fine.
'If we determine that Royal Mail has failed to comply with its obligations, we will consider whether to impose a financial penalty.'
Royal Mail's chief operating officer Alistair Cochrane admitted the service being delivered was 'not yet where we want it to be,' adding: 'We will continue to work hard to deliver the standards our customers expect.
'We are actively modernising Royal Mail, and while these efforts are beginning to deliver results, we know there is still more to do.'
Royal Mail is facing an identity crisis as the number of letters being delivered continues to fall every year amid rising costs - with people now using digital means of communication to send urgent messages.
Twenty years ago, it said it was delivering 20 billion letters a year - equivalent to roughly two letters a day for every address in the UK, six days a week, all year round.
That has now fallen to around 6.6billion as of 2023/24, or around four letters a week per address.
The universal service obligation (USO) currently requires Royal Mail to deliver letters six days a week and parcels five days a week.
However, this is under review as Royal Mail has argued that the USO is no longer fit for purpose. It wants to cut Second Class deliveries to three times a week, delivered Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays.
It is attempting to refocus on parcel delivery - but faces stiff competition in the hyper-competitive parcel delivery market from competitors like Evri, Yodel and DPD.
Royal Mail has offered some conciliations as part of its proposal to Ofcom, including adding tracking to all parcels delivered First and Second Class as standard.
The regulator is expected to publish its conclusions on the proposal this summer, but has said it is minded to allow Second Class to be cut back as proposed based on research it has conducted with Brits.
It has also proposed cutting the First Class target from 93 per cent to 90 percent delivered within one day, and Second Class from 98.5 per cent to 95 percent within three days.
Ofcom estaimes the changes would save Royal Mail between £250m and £425m each year.
Responding to the figures, Tom MacInnes, director of policy at Citizens Advice, said Brits had been 'short-changed' by Royal Mail for more than half a decade, amid rising stamp prices and declining standards.
'Royal Mail's quality of service targets should be there to protect customers, but the company is still getting away with hiking stamp prices while failing to deliver post on time,' he said.
'Our research has shown the damaging consequences of late post, like missed health appointments, fines, bills and vital government communications.
'But with no alternative provider to choose from, people are forced to grapple with poor service, year-on-year.
'With Ofcom considering relaxing the current delivery targets set for Royal Mail as part of the universal service obligation review, reliability remains a huge concern.
'The regulator must get off the sidelines and make the company do what it should've been doing all along – giving paying customers the service they deserve.'
Labour ministers approved the sale of International Distribution Services (IDS) - the Royal Mail's parent company - to Daniel Kretinsky's EP Group for £3.6billion last year, taking Britain's postal service into foreign ownership for the first time.
Kretinsky had amassed a 28 per cent stake in IDS over several years - and his takeover prompted a Government review due to the postal service's vital role in UK national infrastructure.
Through his companies, he also owns more than a quarter of West Ham United FC, 10 per cent of Sainsbury's and a gas transmission service that pipes Russian gas to Europe - a contentious link that nevertheless did not deter UK ministers.
Upon approval of the sale by shareholders last month, he said he would put 'employees and customers at the heart of everything IDS does'.
