Royal Mail’s quality of service suffers

Royal Mail’s First Class quality of service performance has dipped 2.3 percentage points. The company’s slipped below the 93% next-day delivery target in the second quarter of 2009-1010, a period when there was a series of localised strikes by the Communication Workers Union (CWU), focused mainly in London.

The second quarter report on quality of service showed 90.7% of First Class stamped letters arrived the next working day after posting while 98.0% of Second Class letters arrived on time within three working days after posting, half a percentage point below the 98.5% target for Second Class.

During the quarter, however, Standard parcels and European international delivery mail exceeded their targets, as well as a significant proportion of bulk business mail.

Mark Higson, Royal Mail’s managing director, said: “Across the whole of the company, all of our people are now fully engaged in delivering a great Christmas for our customers. We were very concerned that some customers’ service was disrupted by the CWU’s strikes and we’re clearly pleased that the interim agreement we reached with the CWU in early November has provided a no-strike period until the New Year and allows us to get on providing the Christmas service our customers deserve while engaging with the union in important talks about the future of the Royal Mail and our continuing modernisation.”