By Lora Jones
Business reporter, BBC News
Royal Mail wants to maintain daily deliveries of first class letters between Monday and Saturday under new proposals it has set out for reform.
Its parent company is under pressure to cut costs and has suggested second class letters should be delivered every other weekday.
Its boss said the changes would give it a “fighting chance” as the regulator Ofcom reviews options for its future.
The government previously opposed the reduction of a six-day service.
Royal Mail, which was split from the Post Office and privatised a decade ago, is legally obliged to deliver a one-price-goes-anywhere “universal service”.
In recent years, the volume of letters being posted has plummeted while parcel deliveries have become more popular – and more profitable.
But many customers have complained about delays to deliveries for important letters detailing medical appointments, or including legal documents. The company has been struggling financially, making a heavy loss of £419m last year.
Under Ofcom’s current rules, each year Royal Mail is required to deliver 93% of First Class post within one working day and 98.5% of Second Class within three working days, but in 2022-23 the company only delivered 73.7% of First Class and 90.7% of Second Class mail on time.
The regulator has set out various options to reform the service which it said was out of date, and called for feedback from consumers and businesses.
Ahead of an update from the watchdog due in the summer, Royal Mail published its response with its own proposals on Wednesday. They include:
- Maintaining the one-price-goes-anywhere service for the whole of the UK
- First class letters delivered daily, six days a week (Monday to Saturday)
- Changing deliveries of all non-first class letters to every other weekday
- Parcels delivered up to seven days a week as currently
- The delivery speed of mail for big shippers used for things like bills arriving within three weekdays instead of two
Martin Seidenberg, chief executive of International Distributions Services, Royal Mail’s parent company, said that the universal service was now “unsustainable”.
With letter volumes dropping from 20 billion to seven billion a year, Mr Seidenberg suggested: “Reform gives us a fighting chance and will help us on the path to sustainability.”
He also voiced “serious concerns” that the situation was not being treated with enough urgency by the regulator.
The firm wants the watchdog to introduce changes by April 2025 at the latest.
Royal Mail said there would be no need for changes to legislation if its proposals were accepted.
Reforming the postal service by cutting delivery days would require the government and parliament to change the current legislation.
