Ofcom launches investigation into Royal Mail delivery target failures

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.standard.co.uk/business/bus ... 84364.html

Ofcom has opened an investigation into Royal Mail’s failure to meet its delivery targets for the last year, it has said.

Under the watchdog’s targets, 90% of first-class mail should be delivered the next day, and 95% of second-class mail should be delivered within three days.

But Royal Mail announced last week that it had missed targets for another year running, achieving 75.7% of first-class mail arriving the next working day over the 12 months to the end of March, according to the latest quality of service report.

This was slightly less than the 76.3% achieved the prior year.

For second-class mail, 90.2% was delivered within three working days – less than the 92.2% achieved the year before.

Last July, Ofcom “modernised” obligations placed on Royal Mail to reflect steep declines in the number of letters being sent, allowing second-class letters to be delivered on alternate weekdays among changes to delivery targets.

Royal Mail expected to complete it rollout of the new delivery model by Christmas, Ofcom said.

While Royal Mail was now making progress, it had taken almost a year to begin the process of implementing the delivery reforms and service levels remained unacceptable, the regulator added.

Ofcom enforcement director Ian Strawhorne said: “A reliable postal service is vital to many people across the country.

“We share the deep frustrations of customers who have missed important letters because of Royal Mail’s consistent failure to improve its service over the years.

“While the company is now making progress through its improvement plan, we will continue to hold it to account for its unacceptable performance to date.”

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “Improving quality of service is a top priority and we are delivering a major programme of change through the rollout of our new delivery model which underpins our Improvement Plan, backed by £500 million of investment over five years.

“These reforms are designed to deliver long-term quality improvements for customers as we modernise the postal service and deploy the new delivery model, enabled by the changes to the Universal Service regulations that Ofcom introduced in July 2025.

[yellowbelly]

https://www.standard.co.uk/business/bus ... 84364.html

Ofcom has opened an investigation into Royal Mail’s failure to meet its delivery targets for the last year, it has said.

Under the watchdog’s targets, 90% of first-class mail should be delivered the next day, and 95% of second-class mail should be delivered within three days.

But Royal Mail announced last week that it had missed targets for another year running, achieving 75.7% of first-class mail arriving the next working day over the 12 months to the end of March, according to the latest quality of service report.

This was slightly less than the 76.3% achieved the prior year.

For second-class mail, 90.2% was delivered within three working days – less than the 92.2% achieved the year before.

Last July, Ofcom “modernised” obligations placed on Royal Mail to reflect steep declines in the number of letters being sent, allowing second-class letters to be delivered on alternate weekdays among changes to delivery targets.

Royal Mail expected to complete it rollout of the new delivery model by Christmas, Ofcom said.

While Royal Mail was now making progress, it had taken almost a year to begin the process of implementing the delivery reforms and service levels remained unacceptable, the regulator added.

Ofcom enforcement director Ian Strawhorne said: “A reliable postal service is vital to many people across the country.

“We share the deep frustrations of customers who have missed important letters because of Royal Mail’s consistent failure to improve its service over the years.

“While the company is now making progress through its improvement plan, we will continue to hold it to account for its unacceptable performance to date.”

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “Improving quality of service is a top priority and we are delivering a major programme of change through the rollout of our new delivery model which underpins our Improvement Plan, backed by £500 million of investment over five years.

“These reforms are designed to deliver long-term quality improvements for customers as we modernise the postal service and deploy the new delivery model, enabled by the changes to the Universal Service regulations that Ofcom introduced in July 2025.

'OFCOM enforcement director' - laughable!

[oypostie]

Well as they couldn't find any evidence of parcels being prioritised i won't hold my breath

[Mr Rush]

Well as they couldn't find any evidence of parcels being prioritised i won't hold my breath

At the risk of being too crude in raising this particular reference; did you ever see the HBO tv movie Conspiracy? It's a damn good practice to avoid committing your criminal plans to paper lest you leave lots of evidence.

[scotchy1962]

This is where it becomes a farce, instead of forcing the company to comply with the then current USO and then working to change, they introduce the change, which i fancy they still won't deliver, and then after a while when they still can't deliver it, because essentially you are still trying to deliver what you have now with the same amount of people or even less.
You can juggle three balls in the air and they are still just three balls not 4 or 5.
Ofcom need to make RM deliver the new USO, and by that i mean they fine them a eye watering sum to force them into compliance, no petty slaps on the wrist but a good proper kick in the nuts.
It's the only way to get this delivery method sorted once and for all to stop it dragging on for years and make delivery unbearable for you all.

[Pidleypoo]

And they’ll have to launch another one when dm26 is fully implemented and offices are piled high with undelivered mail and packets.

[twoloops]

If Of-com are serious about nailing Royal Mail they need to open an anonymous link where we could all send photos & information about what's really happening in every delivery offices up & down the country

[Hyrrokkin]

Ofcom are a complete joke and corrupt as hell

[postslippete]

Ofcom need to make RM deliver the new USO, and by that i mean they fine them a eye watering sum to force them into compliance, no petty slaps on the wrist but a good proper kick in the nuts.
It's the only way to get this delivery method sorted once and for all to stop it dragging on for years and make delivery unbearable for you all.

Not convinced it's that simple. Thames Water were fined a record £122.7 million by Ofwat after years of poor performance, pollution and failing its customers while at the same time paying out millions in dividends to shareholders and holding companies.

If RM has been missing its QoS targets for years while arguing that the current USO is unsustainable, should regulators simply continue to accept those explanations or ask tougher questions about its management decisions, investment priorities and where the money has gone over the years?

At what point does a regulator stop asking why a company is failing and start asking whether the company has done everything reasonably possible to avoid that failure in the first place?

[TopperGas]

Ofcom need to make RM deliver the new USO, and by that i mean they fine them a eye watering sum to force them into compliance, no petty slaps on the wrist but a good proper kick in the nuts.
It's the only way to get this delivery method sorted once and for all to stop it dragging on for years and make delivery unbearable for you all.

Not convinced it's that simple. Thames Water were fined a record £122.7 million by Ofwat after years of poor performance, pollution and failing its customers while at the same time paying out millions in dividends to shareholders and holding companies.

If RM has been missing its QoS targets for years while arguing that the current USO is unsustainable, should regulators simply continue to accept those explanations or ask tougher questions about its management decisions, investment priorities and where the money has gone over the years?

At what point does a regulator stop asking why a company is failing and start asking whether the company has done everything reasonably possible to avoid that failure in the first place?

Or those the Government need to start asking OFCOM why they aren't taking stronger action?

Although you can just see this year's excuse from RM will be they were waiting for the CWU to agree the USO changes, next year it will be the USO changes are taking longer to implement than anticipated, then the year after DM26 hasn't worked so they need to introduce DM28!!

Probably by DM30 letters will have dropped to such low numbers that RM might actually be a able to deliver them on time!!

[Mr Rush]

Probably by DM30 letters will have dropped to such low numbers that RM might actually be a able to deliver them on time!!

Ah, but by then the number of new build homes will have gone up 0.7% which naturally makes it a completely impossible task. The problem definitely isn't the packets getting in the way of delivering the letters

[youngoffender]

Ofcom's fines to date have been so limited (a few days' turnover) that RM has no incentive to do better. The cost of resourcing the business to meet the USO (even in its revised form) surely exceeds the cost of those fines, so the penalties have just been 'priced in' as a cost of doing business.

If Ofcom were serious about getting to the root of the problem, they would be sending an investigative team into DOs to see what is actually happening on the ground, and holding local/regional managers legally accountable for "intentional delay" of mail under the Postal Services Act 2000.

[tramssirhc]

Whilst the regulator is not fit for purpose there is also the not fit for purpose regulation. If regulation of the railway was based on the profitability of service provision most of the train services would not be operating. The postal regulations put profit before service and the legislation prioritises letter decline over letter reality. The lawmakers believe that letters have disappeared and have created a framework that requires the universal provision to be cost neutral. That ignores the historical reality of the universal service and cross subsidy.

No amount of tinkering and attacks on postal workers will provide the profit and cost neutrality wanted by the industry or OFCOM. If the lawmakers won't rewrite the legislation and put the service first then the industry should be renationalised. In the meantime expect more tinkering, more letters and more attacks on us.