Royal Mail misses delivery targets AGAIN despite scrapping popular service

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Last year, Royal Mail confirmed plans to axe its second-class delivery service on Saturdays in an effort to meet delivery targets

Royal Mail has once again fallen short of the delivery standards set by the postal regulator despite scrapping its popular Saturday postal service.

During the opening quarter of the year, the company managed to get just 85 per cent of first-class letters to their destination the following day, five percentage points below Ofcom's 90 per cent benchmark.

Second-class performance also lagged behind, with 91.4 per cent of items arriving within three working days against a required 95 per cent.

These thresholds are themselves less demanding than those previously in place.

On April 1, Ofcom reduced the first-class target from 93 per cent and the second-class requirement from 98.5 per cent as part of broader universal service reforms.

Despite missing the mark, Royal Mail pointed to significant progress compared with the same period last year, when only 76 per cent of first-class and 89.3 per cent of second-class post reached recipients on time.

The postal operator's parent company, International Distribution Services, was acquired by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky last year.

Under its new ownership, Royal Mail has committed to hitting Ofcom's delivery benchmarks by May 2027, backed by a £500million investment programme spanning the next five years.

Ofcom approved the postal reforms last July in response to the sharp fall in the number of letters sent across the UK, permitting second-class mail to be delivered on alternate weekdays rather than every day.

The implementation was initially held up while the company negotiated terms with trade unions.

Jamie Stephenson, Royal Mail's chief operating officer, said: "These results are encouraging and show that the work we are doing to improve the service is having an impact."

He added: "First-class performance is well ahead of where we expected to be at this stage of our improvement plan, while second-class is tracking in line with the plan."

However, he acknowledged that "we know there is more to do".

In June, Ofcom opened a formal investigation into Royal Mail after it failed to meet its annual delivery targets for a second consecutive year in the twelve months ending in March.