Royal Mail cuts mail loss by half
Royal Mail today announced that the amount of mail that goes astray through being delivered to the wrong person or address has been almost halved during the past year.
Chief Executive Adam Crozier said: “This is a major step in the right direction and our people should take the credit for the improvement in performance. However, every single letter is important so there’s a lot more to do but these results demonstrate Royal Mail’s commitment to improving our service to customers.”
Delivery mistakes are the main cause of mail loss or significant delays. The latest research by the company estimates that around 280,000 letters a week – around 0.07 per cent of the 21 billion letters a year handled by Royal Mail could be lost or substantially delayed. The previous year the figure was around 500,000 a week.
Customer addressing errors also lead to letters going missing. But millions of badly addressed letters still get through to the right person on time – postmen and women manage to deliver around 15 million letters a week that are incorrectly addressed. Royal Mail’s National Return Letter Centre in Belfast handles mail that cannot be delivered and has no return address on the outside. Last year the centre handled around 72 million letters, successfully returning around a quarter of them.
Royal Mail recommends that customers check that addresses, including postcodes, are correct – more than 8 million letters a day are sent with either no postcode or an inaccurate one. A return address on the back of envelopes ensures that any letter that cannot be delivered is sent back swiftly to sender.
Royal Mail’s actions to improve its delivery standards include better equipment for local delivery offices and improved training for new recruits and temporary employees.
The latest figures are from independent research carried out by Royal Mail as part of its licence from industry regulator Postcomm. This requires the company to ensure stringent mail protection measures and to provide annual estimates of mail loss.
Ends
Issued by Royal Mail: 020 7250 2468 (24 hours)
148 Old Street
LONDON
EC1V 9HQ
www.royalmail.com
Notes to editors:
1. Postcodes and addresses can be checked through Royal Mail’s website at www. royalmail.com. This is a free facility that allows eight postcodes to be checked in a 24 hour period. Postcodes Online is one of the UK’s most popular web pages with more than 32 million hits a year.
Customers can also obtain postcodes through the Postcode Enquiry Line on 08457 111 222. Calls are charged at local rate outside of office hours and at weekends; premium 50p per minute rate applies during office hours (8am-6pm).
2. A range of Royal Mail products and services are available to help businesses with addressing on mailings.
www.royalmail.com
