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The Royal Mail has made millions of pounds by charging for a firstclass delivery service that it has effectively scrapped – without telling customers.
Confidential documents leaked to The Mail on Sunday reveal that the postal service has stopped giving priority to first-class letters and packages posted on Saturdays.
The move means that the company has already made an estimated £4 million from customers needlessly putting first-class stamps on post that has been treated the same as second class
Since the changes were secretly introduced in July, about 40 million 46p first-class stamps have been used when a 36p second-class stamp would have been just as fast.
On top of this, thousands of businesses have needlessly paid extra to ensure their mail is delivered as promptly as possible.
The changes were detailed in an eight-page document circulated to managers in mail centres and delivery offices, which said: 'Second-class traffic posted Friday and Saturday will be processed along with first-class posted Saturday, using Saturday first-class labels.'
Last night MPs and business groups condemned the development.
Labour's Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna said: 'The Royal Mail's first-class service has always been sold as being quicker than sending mail by second class.
So if there is, in fact, no benefit in sending mail first-class at a particular point in the week, then that will inevitably undermine the trust which people have in the Royal Mail, which is a very serious matter. These are serious allegations, not least because of the potential legal ramifications.'
Lawyers said Royal Mail could be laying itself open to legal action over its change of policy.
David Gordon, a commercial lawyer with DG Law in London, said: 'This could amount to misrepresentation by the Royal Mail, and it might spark claims for compensation if people are sufficiently disadvantaged by it.'
The new policy was disclosed in a document entitled Under The Roof Changes, which explains measures aimed at saving the lossmaking part of the business millions of pounds by streamlining its weekend deliveries.
It states: 'We want to move to a standardised way of dispatching our second-class Saturday-posted traffic and to also simplify and reduce cost in our network by removing under-utilised services.
'Moving the traffic forward to a Saturday dispatch and ceasing Monday's second-class dispatch is the most viable and cost-effective option that also protects quality.'
The Royal Mail said that while an average of 62 million letters were posted every weekday, that number fell to about 30 million on a Saturday.
It confirmed the vast majority of post on Saturdays was business bulk mail but it refused to confirm how many stamped letters were posted.
But industry experts estimated that about seven million letters with stamps were posted on Saturdays, of which up to three million were first class – generating the £4 million of unnecessary overpayment since July. Over a year, more than £10 million could be 'wasted' by customers.
Industry insiders believe it is not just private mail users who have been affected by the change.
According to the Forum of Private Business, thousands of small firms spend extra on first-class post to ensure their letters would be delivered first thing on Monday, unaware that second-class mail was arriving at the same time.
A spokesman said: 'Whether by error or design, Royal Mail customers have been cheated. Many firms are likely to have paid unnecessarily higher postal prices.'
Larger companies that negotiate a special business rate with the Royal Mail, and so do not use either the also suffer a knock-on effect because their Saturday post could end up at the back of a lengthening queue of other mail. It is estimated that because of the changes, more than one million extra letters will have to be delivered on a Monday.
The Federation of Small Businesses said: 'This is of concern. Weare worried these changes could lead to delays in the delivery of letters.'
Dave Ward, deputy general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, said: 'We're concerned about what effect this could have on jobs and services. This could be the tip of the iceberg for consumers.
Making no distinction between first and second-class mail at the weekend gives the wrong impression.'
The Royal Mail last night admitted that all first-class and second-class mail was now handled together on Saturday, but insisted it had not altered its policies.
A source said there had been no public announcement because the Royal Mail wanted to retain the distinction between first and second class post, even though they were treated the same at weekends.
A spokesman said: 'The UK is one of the few countries in Europe that provides a six-day postal service.
That service is expensive to run and it has been losing significant amounts of money for some time.
'To help reduce the losses, Royal Mail is no longer running a dedicated transport network for the small proportion of second-class mail posted on a Saturday.' He disputed the £4 million losses figure, but said he could not provide an accurate estimate.
The Royal Mail has been able to merge its first and second-class operation on Saturdays because of spare capacity created by dramatic falls in mail volumes.
In 2005, it delivered about 80 million letters a day, but this has now slumped to 62 million a day as people increasingly communicate by email. Consumer mail accounts for just 12 per cent of the company's business.
The group made a £39 million profit last year, ignoring 'modernisation costs', but the division dealing with letters, parcels and international business plunged into the red, losing £120 million compared with a £20 million profit in 2009.
Postal regulator Ofcom refused to comment on the changes, saying it was 'an operational matter'.
No, RM hasn't "stopped giving priority to first-class letters and packages posted on Saturdays" but with "Second-class traffic posted Friday and Saturday will be processed along with first-class posted Saturday, using Saturday first-class labels" you're getting a first class serive for a second class stamp, a SAVING of 10p, at the end of the week, but 'Royal Mail weekend bargain' wouldn't make such a good headline. 
- that's the Daily Mail for you. 
