Royal Mail calls for union agreement on reforms as it misses post targets

Royal Mail has insisted it needs to “urgently” roll out changes that will see second-class post scrapped on Saturdays as it revealed postal targets were missed once again.

The group said 91.6% of second-class mail was delivered within three working days, while 77.5% of first-class post was delivered the next working day between September 29 and November 30.

Regulator Ofcom does not apply delivery targets over December due to significant high levels of delivery demand during the Christmas season.

Royal Mail said it marks an improvement on the previous quarter, but still falls short of the targets set by Ofcom, which are for 93% of first-class post to be delivered the next day and 98.5% of second-class to be delivered within three days.

Royal Mail chief executive Alistair Cochrane said: “While these results show improvements for both first and second-class mail, we recognise that our performance in letters is still not good enough.

“Unfortunately, under the current delivery model, there is no viable way to significantly and sustainably improve quality of service for customers.

“The answer is to urgently implement Universal Service reform, which is why we have now entered an intense period of discussions with the CWU to finally reach an agreement on these changes.”

The figures come as Royal Mail has been asked to respond to a group of MPs who raised concerns about “chaos” in the postal service since Christmas and suggestions that some letters are being delivered in “batches”.

The company was, earlier this week, given two weeks to respond to a series of questions put to it by the Business and Trade Committee (BTC).

It follows the postal firm issuing a notice about potential service delays across 38 of its delivery offices this week, covering around 100 UK postcodes, as a result of local issues like a higher than usual number of staff off sick, as well as stormy weather.

Ofcom last year gave the green light to Royal Mail to scrap second-class letter deliveries on Saturdays and change the service to every other weekday, starting from July 28.

Royal Mail launched second-class letter changes across 35 delivery offices as a pilot, but has yet to expand this nationwide across all 1,200 sites due to the failure to reach an agreement with the union.

It kicked off month-long intensive talks with the Communications Workers Union (CWU) at the beginning of February after failing to agree on how to roll out changes nationwide to its universal service obligation (USO).

Royal Mail said the pilots “show the model is working, with increased efficiency and improved service levels, including over Christmas when volumes doubled”.

“Given strong evidence from the pilots conducted that USO reform will result in significant and sustained improvements in quality of service for customers, Royal Mail sees no alternative to its urgent deployment across the network,” it added.

Citizens Advice hit out at Royal Mail’s “woeful performance”.

Anne Pardoe, head of policy at Citizens Advice, said: “Things risk getting worse when cuts to delivery days come into full effect.

“With second-class delivery opportunities set to be halved, it’s concerning that people aren’t even getting their post on time now.

“Late deliveries are not a minor inconvenience. They mean missed medical appointments, delayed benefit decisions, unpaid bills and fines.

“Any future stamp price rises must be contingent on Royal Mail meeting its delivery targets.”