Royal Mail misses quality targets for First Class and bulk mail

Royal Mail’s latest service quality figures suggest it narrowly missed its on-time target for stamped First Class mail in the three months leading up to Christmas, as well as for bulk mail services. The financially hard-pressed British postal operator said the scale of its modernisation and network consolidation meant it was also going to be challenging to achieve all its quality targets this spring.

The latest data measured independently by TNS-Research International found that 92.3% of stamped and franked First Class mail was delivered overnight in the three months ending in the first week of December. Its target was 93%.

Minimum quality standards were achieved in 70% of the UK’s 118 postcode areas, Royal Mail said.

After closing 14 mail centres in the last few years in the light of falling mail volumes, Royal Mail said today that there had been “a temporary adverse impact on customer service” as a result of its network changes.

Royal Mail did meet its retail Second Class target dead-on, delivering the required 98.5% of the mail category on time within three working days after posting.

And, the company said it “comfortably” surpassed its targets for Standard parcels and international deliveries to European destinations.

But among the services missing their full-year target rates during the quarter were all classes of Royal Mail bulk mail services, Special Delivery (Next Day) and the Universal Service Obligation Standard for Delivery.

Bulk mail service quality levels were half a percentage point below target for Second Class and Third Class, but nearly two points below target for First Class.

Impact

Commenting on the service quality results, Royal Mail said it had a “firm objective” to implement its network modernisation “with the minimum possible impact” on quality of service.

The modernisation effort is one of the largest transformation programmes in UK industry according to Royal Mail.

Mark Higson, Royal Mail managing director for operations and modernisation, said: “Royal Mail’s target for next-day delivery of First Class mail is challenging and we are disappointed on behalf of our customers to have narrowly missed hitting it in the autumn.

“Our postmen and women remain determined to deliver the best possible service to our customers,” added Higson.

The service quality data was based on a sample of more than 245,000 letters, packets and parcels mailed to nearly 5,800 addresses nationwide.

Royal Mail delivers on average 59m items each day overall, but has seen a 25% fall in volumes since 2006, when its average daily volumes were more than 80m items.

The company is planning to overhaul its bulk mail services from April, but is also proposing to implement an 11% postal rate rise from the beginning of the same month.

“Step backwards”

National consumer watchdog Consumer Focus said the latest results from Royal Mail were a “step backwards” on its performance in the second quarter of the year, although it was a better performance than in the same quarter in 2010.

It said there was particular cause for concern regarding service standards in London, where 12 of 20 areas failed to hit their targets.

Robert Hammond, director of Postal Policy and Regulation at Consumer Focus, said the results showed a “patchy” performance from Royal Mail, “with little discernable or consistent upward trend”.

He said: “People have seen stamp prices rise over recent years. With the prospect of more price rises to come, consumers will expect a steady improvement in delivery performance as a result.”

Hammond said the significant changes at Royal Mail would not happen overnight, but while consumers might expect a dip in performance where modernisation was happening, this shouldn’t be for an extended period as appears to be the case in some areas”.

“Some post code areas have been failing for a number of quarters in succession and this is an issue which Royal Mail and the regulator Ofcom need to keep a close eye on,” added Hammond.

The UK’s postal industry regulator Ofcom told Post&Parcel that in its role, it monitors Royal Mail’s performance on an annual basis to take account of seasonal issues, rather than focusing on quarterly performances.

“But ultimately we could take enforcement action against them if they missed their targets without any justifiable reasons,” said Ofcom spokesperson Amber Vassiliou.