Royal Mail delivers on city targets

Royal Mail bosses have hailed the hard work of Edinburgh’s postmen and women after they finally ensured the city’s first-class mail was arriving on time.

The “tireless work and dedication” of postal workers was praised after targets for delivering first-class letters were exceeded in the Capital for the first time.

For years, Edinburgh has had one of the poorest delivery records in Scotland.

Figures released by Postwatch Scotland show households within the EH postcode had seen delivery rates improve dramatically between July and September.

The quarterly results show in Edinburgh the Royal Mail is now delivering 93.6 per cent of all first-class mail by the next day – higher than the 91.5 per cent target set by postal regulator Postcomm.

However, the watchdog warned the results are for the quiet summer months and urged the city’s postmen to keep up the good work over the annual Christmas rush.

A Royal Mail spokeswoman said that the upturn in figures was down to the “sterling work” of the Capital’s postal workers rather than any dedicated strategy.

She said: “Postmen and women in Edinburgh have been working flat-out in recent months and because of this, we have seen big inroads being made into achieving our targets.

“Past results have shown us failing to reach our targets due to Edinburgh having a high number of tenement buildings that are difficult to gain entry to.

“However, our postal workers have been working hard to address these issues. Although we have also altered our sorting procedures and made a few internal changes, it is really the postmen and women that should take credit for these results.”

John Manson, Royal Mail area manager, added: “The challenge we now face is to maintain the consistent, high-quality service we are delivering to our customers in the run-up to the busy Christmas period. We are determined to meet that challenge.”

Tricia Dow, director of Postwatch Scotland, which monitors the performance of the Royal Mail and other postal providers, said: “It is good news that there has been an improvement in Edinburgh and, at last, the city has started to move up in the rankings.

“We now want to see an increased improvement by the time the next quarterly figures come out and hope that Edinburgh continues to go in the right direction.

“But, at the same time, we are being cautious about the results. During the summer months, there is far less mail and, when the next results come out, they will include the Christmas period, which is the busiest time of the year.”