Consignia is facing £400m late post fine.

THE Post Office is still failing to deliver enough letters on time despite pressure from the regulator, new figures reveal.

If it fails to improve by the end of the month, the company could be fined up to 10 per cent of its £4billion annual turnover.

In yesterday’s report, Consignia failed to meet the delivery targets for each of the 13 services it offers.

First class post is now more reliable than it was at the Millennium, but the number of letters delivered the next day is still nearly two per cent below Postcomm’s target.

Although nine out of 10 letters are delivered by the next morning, this is still below the 92.1 per cent target.

The figures are down by 0.3 per cent on July-to-September’s figures, although this is partly due to disruptions after the US terror attacks.

Second class mail was delivered on time in 98.4 per cent of cases, just short of the 98.5 per cent target.

Consignia chief executive John Roberts said: “It is not bad, but still not good enough. Royal Mail staff are making a huge effort to drive performance on. In almost a third of the UK, we are beating our target.”

Mr Roberts said single deliveries, to go on trial from May, would make a big difference. But Peter Carr, chairman of the consumer watchdog Postwatch, said the results were still disappointing.

He said: “The latest results remain a long way from the end-ofyear target of 92.1 per cent. This is very disappointing as the industry was expecting a significant improvement.

“It is also of concern that so many of the 121 post code areas are missing the target by not one or two, but many percentage points.”

Although Postcomm has the power to fine Consignia up to £400million if it fails to deliver post on time by April, it is unlikely this threat will be carried out. Consignia is losing £1.5million a day and is to make 30,000 employers redundant.

Any financial penalties would simply add to the problems faced by the company.

The Express