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In the year ending March, Royal Mail delivered 75.7% of first class letters on time, a figure significantly lower than its previous target of 93%. The postal service’s performance was detailed in the latest quality-of-service report, covering the period since the company was acquired by Daniel Kretinsky’s EP Group, whose takeover gained shareholder approval in late April last year. Similarly, only 90.2% of second class letters met the delivery timeframe of three working days, falling short of the 98.5% target.
Royal Mail maintains that its service is on an upward trajectory and aims to achieve newly adjusted targets of 90% for first class and 95% for second class deliveries by the same period next year. Chief Operating Officer Jamie Stephenson emphasized the ongoing commitment to improvement, stating, “We’re putting significant investment into improving reliability and reaching these new delivery targets, but delivering lasting change across a network of this scale takes time.” The company plans to invest £500 million over the next five years as part of a dedicated improvement strategy.
The postal service has long been criticised by both politicians and the public due to slow letter deliveries. It has now been a decade since Royal Mail met its targets for first class post and six years since meeting targets for second class. In recent years, regulatory penalties have been imposed; notably, in October last year, Ofcom fined Royal Mail £21 million for failing to meet delivery targets, marking its third-largest fine. Additional fines were issued in both 2023 and 2024 due to continued unsatisfactory performance.
Concerns expressed by postal workers earlier this year that letters were being left undelivered for weeks, with a supposed prioritization of parcels over letters due to higher profitability, drew scrutiny from a parliamentary select committee. A Royal Mail executive rejected these claims, stating, “I have never heard any instruction or discussion, and have not participated in any exchange, that would sanction that Royal Mail is prioritising parcels over letters.” Meanwhile, Citizens Advice policy director Tom MacInnes criticized the ongoing poor performance as “business as usual” and expressed frustration that customers might have to wait another full year to see target improvements. Ofcom itself has recently lowered the delivery targets for Royal Mail, citing that maintaining previous, more stringent targets would result in higher costs and prices, noting that the new standards remain tougher than those in comparable European countries
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