Royal Mail to make huge change to deliveries in massive shake-up

ROYAL Mail is set to make a huge change to its deliveries in a massive shake-up for customers.

The postal service could scrap second class deliveries on Saturdays and reduce the service to be on alternate weekdays, its been announced.

PA

Royal Mail could scrap second class deliveries[/caption]

This comes as part of proposals laid out by Ofcom this morning.

The regulator has been consulting on the future of the service since last year.

Under the proposed plans, which were first announced last September, second class deliveries would not be made on Saturdays and would only take place on alternate weekdays.

Delivery times though would remain unchanged at up to three working days.

The watchdog said following a consultation, it had provisionally concluded the changes would continue to meet postal users’ needs.

The regulator said the move, if carried out successfully, would help save between £250million and £425million.

This money would then be reinvested into the business to help improve it.

It was also proposed that Royal Mail should lower its targets for first class mail from 93% to 90% delivered next-day.

Meanwhile, targets for second class mail should be reduced from 98.5% to 95% delivered within three days.

This will bring them more in line with other international and European markets, it added.

Ofcom said it is putting forward these suggestions amid a drop in the quality of service at Royal Mail.

The regulator has fined Royal Mail a total of £16million in the last 18 months.

Most recently, the firm was slapped with a £10.5million fine for missing delivery targets.

At the time, Ofcom said just 74.7% of first class post was delivered on time in the past year — well short of the 93% target.

Natalie Black, Ofcom’s group director for networks and communications said: “The world has changed – we’re sending a third of the letters we were 20 years ago. We need to reform the postal service to protect its future and ensure it delivers for the whole of the UK.

“But we’re safeguarding what matters most to people – First Class mail six days a week at the same price throughout the UK, and a price cap on Second Class stamps.”

Ofcom is now set to consult further on its proposals until April 10, with a final decision to be made in the summer.

CHANGING HABITS

Customers are using postal services less and less, particularly when it comes to using letters.

Twenty years ago, Royal Mail was delivering 20billion letters.

That number is now 6.6billion a year, and Royal Mail expects it to be 4billion a year in the next few years.

Emma Gilthorpe, chief executive of Royal Mail, said that reform is “crucial to support a modern, sustainable, and reliable postal service for our customers, our company and our people.”

She added: “Ofcom has recognised the urgent need for change so that the future of the Universal Service can be protected for all.”

The price of first class stamps has also been increased five times over the past two years, with cost now sitting at £1.67 since last October.

This was on top of a 10p rise in April 2024.

Royal Mail bosses warned in November that it will have to increase prices even further after a £120million hit from the Budget.

The boss of the postal service told reporters that he could not rule out hiking stamp prices even higher as it faced the enormous burden of extra costs.

The planned changes to the universal postal service come as Royal Mail is being sold to Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky for £3.6billion, with the deal being cleared by the Government at the end of last year.

However, the government will have a special share in the business which means Kretinsky will have to get approval for any changes to Royal Mail’s ownership or location of its headquarters and tax residency.

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