Official investigation into Royal Mail’s failure to meet delivery targets

Communications watchdog Ofcom has launched an investigation into the Royal Mail’s failure to meet postal delivery targets over the last twelve months.

Under Ofcom rules Royal Mail is required to deliver 93% of First Class mail within one working day of collection, and 98.5% of Second Class mail within three working days of collection.

However, across 2021-22, only 81.8% of First Class mail was delivered within one working day and 95.4% of Second Class mail was delivered within three working days.

In addition, Royal Mail is set a target of completing 99.9% of delivery routes on each day that a delivery is required. However, it completed 94.09% of routes over this period.

Royal Mail admitted earlier this month that nearly one in five first class deliveries were not made on time due to the ‘exceptional ongoing effects’ of the pandemic.

Royal Mail is also required to deliver 91.5% of First Class stamped and metered mail products within one working day in 118 postcode areas of the UK – but it didn’t meet this target in any of these postcode areas.

Performance against these targets is measured as an average performance level throughout the year, excluding the Christmas period.

Ofcom said it “takes quality of service very seriously. In our investigation we will gather evidence to understand the reasons behind this lapse in performance, and will determine whether Royal Mail has breached its requirements.”