Royal Mail’s chief executive said he was ‘sorry’ for poor performance as he revealed the ailing postal service’s ‘biggest transformation in generations’ will reach most areas ‘before Christmas’.
Alistair Cochrane said performance figures to June, which showed a 9 per cent improvement in delivery rates for First Class letters and a 2 per cent improvement to Second Class, showed ‘encouraging signs’.
In the first three months of 2026-27, 85 per cent of First Class letters arrived at their destination within a day, still below regulator Ofcom’s 90 per cent target. Some 91 per cent of Second Class mail was delivered within three days, short of the 95 per cent target.
But Cochrane said: ‘I want to acknowledge Royal Mail’s performance has not been good enough and to say sorry. We want to do better and we are absolutely determined to do so.’
Cochrane said the company has been implementing changes to working arrangements - reflecting a 75 per cent decline in letter volumes from 20 billion to five billion a year but growth in parcel deliveries - aiming to cut delays and restore performance.
He said: ‘It’s the biggest transformation in generations. We’re seeing some encouraging signs this is beginning to work. We’ve implemented changes in 70 per cent of sites and are poised to roll out to most others before Christmas.’
Cochrane made no specific comment about whether letter performance will meet its targets in time for the Christmas post but said he takes ‘the responsibility of the Universal Service Obligation’ – under which letters are delivered to every address across the UK for the same price – ‘extremely seriously’.
But he said that the firm was committed to ensuring its staff are on ‘proper contracts with holiday and sick pay’ – adding: ‘Sadly, that’s not the same across the industry.’
Kate Dearden, business minister whose brief includes responsibility for the postal service, said: ‘We know the quality of service has not been good enough. We’ve had a frank chat about that in my early stages in post.’
Cochrane’s apology echoed that made to MPs by the company’s owner, Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský, in March.
Alistair Cochrane, whose apology echoed that made to MPs by Czech tycoon Daniel Křetínský
But the Unite union’s CMA division, representing postal managers, fears Royal Mail’s slender profits of just £5million on £8.4billion revenue in the year to March means that further reforms are needed – and quickly – or ‘more jobs could be lost’.
Letter volumes were down by a further 10 per cent and parcels were up 7 per cent, while four million new addresses have been added to delivery rounds, increasing costs.
Gary Sassoon-Hales, national chairman of Unite CMA, said: ‘It does not take a rocket scientist to work out what happens next if these pressures remain unresolved: it places more jobs under threat.’
He said that while ‘other countries across Europe reshaped their postal services’, Ofcom has been responsible for ‘delay and uncertainty’ in the UK.
The regulator has ‘woefully failed to recognise paradigm shifts within the postal services sector’ and ‘failed customers and failed to assess adequately the challenges facing Royal Mail,’ Sassoon-Hales added.
He warned Royal Mail ‘cannot keep raising First Class prices indefinitely because customers will go away’ – and must be allowed to look at raising Second Class prices while offering a ‘targeted discount for vulnerable customers’.
In a report, Sassoon-Hales also called on Royal Mail to improve staff retention as an estimated half of new recruits leave within a year due to the ‘physical demands of the job’.
He said the company could help reduce the number of young people not in employment, education or training – such as by taking on apprentices without driving licences and teaching them to drive.
Further challenges cited by Unite-CMA include how Brexit saw 37 per cent of international traffic vanish due to ‘additional customs bureaucracy’.
Sassoon-Hales said there should also be a ‘level playing field’ with other delivery companies forced to class delivery workers as ‘employees unless they can prove otherwise’ and cover the same costs as Royal Mail.
Separately, competitors should not be allowed to ‘dump’ parcels addressed to unprofitable destinations where they do not have delivery workers onto Royal Mail, adding to its burdens.
Rival firms should be only allowed to take parcels for where it can deliver them, he urged.
Sassoon-Hales said: ‘It is about protecting a national institution, securing decent jobs and rebuilding a service in which customers can have confidence.’
