Significant, sustained improvements possible with USO reform implementation
Royal Mail has today published its latest, independently verified, Quality of Service results for the third quarter of the 2025–26 financial year, covering the period from 29 September to 30 November 2025.
All figures represent an improvement in performance compared with the previous quarter, despite the impact of Storm Claudia which caused flooding and major disruption during November.
91.6% of Second Class mail was delivered within three working days, and 98.4% within five working days.
77.5% of First Class mail was delivered the next working day, with 96.6% delivered within three working days.
Ofcom does not apply its normal delivery targets over the Christmas period, between 1 and 31 December 2025, because of significantly higher seasonal volumes.
During this time, Royal Mail again delivered a successful Christmas for customers, with over 99% of items sent by the last recommended posting dates arriving on time for the third consecutive year.
Significant, sustained improvements possible with USO reform implementation
On 28 July 2025 postal regulator Ofcom made changes to the Universal Service regulations to enable Royal Mail to deliver Second Class post every other weekday. First Class post will continue to be delivered six days a week (Monday to Saturday). This new model is designed to deliver a more efficient, more reliable and more financially sustainable service for customers in light of continued significant structural decline in letter volumes.
Working with the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Unite CMA, Royal Mail started piloting a new delivery model in 35 of our c.1,200 delivery offices last year. These pilots show the model is working, with increased efficiency and improved service levels, including over Christmas when volumes doubled.
While Unite CMA agreed to deployment of USO reform last year, an agreement has not yet been reached with the CWU despite a commitment from the CWU to do so by July 2025. Therefore, in January Royal Mail’s discussions with the CWU regarding USO reform deployment were moved into the Achieving National Agreement Procedure.
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.
Royal Mail Chief Executive Officer, 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. We owe it to our customers and our people to provide an exceptional mail service, and we are hopeful that we can reach an agreement with the CWU that finally allows us to do so.”
Key points
- 91.6% of Second Class mail was delivered within three working days, and 98.4% within five working days.
- 77.5% of First Class mail was delivered the next working day, with 96.6% delivered within three working days.
