http://www.consumerfocus.org.uk/news/ju ... erformance" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Published: 27 May 2011
In response to Royal Mail’s performance statistics published today, Robert Hammond, Head of Post at Consumer Focus, said:
‘We cannot judge whether Royal Mail has failed to meet its service targets from this data. Royal Mail uses figures it has adjusted to take account of disruption from snow and volcanic ash. These adjustments have not yet been reviewed or accepted by Postcomm and the regulator is unlikely to do so until the Autumn. Until it does so, this remains Royal Mail’s view only.
‘Bad conditions clearly had a big impact on mail at certain points of the year, and the dedication of hardworking postmen and women delivering in difficult weather was appreciated by many consumers. However this is the first time that Royal Mail has ever released “adjusted” figures around their Quality of Service Report and the un-adjusted figures show Royal Mail failing three of its benchmark targets.1′
When scrutinising these figures the regulator will need to consider in particular that Royal Mail’s poor performance in January to March happened when weather conditions improved2; that the worst spell of weather in December is excluded from this period; and that there is evidence of local delivery problems caused by Royal Mail’s essential modernisation scheme.4
ENDS
Notes to editors:
•All figures mentioned by Consumer Focus in this release are original, un-adjusted performance figures from Royal Mail.
1.Across 2010-11 Royal Mail did not meet its First Class, Second Class or Special Delivery targets. Locally it did not meet its First Class delivery targets in almost half of postcodes (50 out of 118), with Scotland and South-East England particularly badly affected.
Royal Mail cites the volcanic ash in April and extreme weather as mitigating factors for these failures. However, ash disrupted air transport for only 6 days and there was poor winter weather for only four weeks (last two weeks of November, first two weeks of January; the Christmas period is exempted from these targets).
2.Royal Mail had its worst performance between Jan to March 2011, failing its targets for First Class, Second Class or Special Delivery based on raw data. At a local level it did not meet its target for First Class deliveries in 92 out of 118 Postcode Areas.
Royal Mail attributes its poor performance in January to disruption from continued severe weather and the Christmas backlog. However, the Met Office indicates that poor weather only continued for the first 10 days of January, localised mostly to Scotland, with this February one of the warmest in 100 years, and March warmer and drier than normal.
3.Royal Mail’s performance over the Christmas 2010/11 period (6 Dec -1 Jan) is exempted from the normal targets and the overall figures, but was particularly poor with only 1/3 of First Class items arriving the next working day.
4.While changes to modernise local services are needed Consumer Focus has received strong anecdotal evidence of local communities experiencing delayed deliveries and other disruption as a result, alongside further information of problems from Royal Mail. Consumers face two more years of this essential modernisation, so Consumer Focus thinks that Royal Mail must work harder to minimise disruption and communicate better with customers about the problems that will be caused. It is also important that Royal Mail is able to effectively monitor and quickly respond to problems experienced around modernisation changes at a local level.
Royal Mail actual and target results for deliveries:
