Postwatch comment on misdelivered letters

It is good news that Royal Mail’s new management team are focused on reducing the
incidence of lost and badly addressed mail.
Postwatch is pleased that considerable efforts have been made to reduce the
number of misdelivered letters and the incidence of parcels being left on doorsteps.
These efforts have paid-off in terms of misdelivered mail but not yet for “doorstepped”
parcels. More than 1.5 million parcels were stolen from doorsteps across the UK last
year, an increase of more than 600,000 on the previous year.
Postwatch fully supports Royal Mail’s efforts to encourage customers to correctly
address letters and to add a return address on the back of envelopes. Millions of
letters every year, including 5 million Christmas cards, have to be destroyed because
they are undeliverable and cannot be returned.
To demonstrate a joined-up strategic approach to the problem of badly addressed
mail, Postwatch reiterates its call to Royal Mail’s new management to reverse the
perverse decision to charge customers 50p per minute between 8am and 6pm for
calling the Postcode Enquiry Line (08457 111 222).
Peter Carr, Chairman of Postwatch, commenting on today’s announcement said,
”From January this year Royal Mail has charged customers at a premium rate for
calls to its postcode help line. This was a wrong decision for an organisation that has
for years required the use of postcodes. It is for Royal Mail’s benefit that customers
use the postcode as it enables letters to be quickly processed by machine to achieve
higher delivery standards. A classic case of short sightedness.
“Royal Mail estimate that more than 8 million letters a day are posted with a wrong or
no postcode. I very much hope the new management team will review their strategy
and reverse the previous decision. They did it with the Consignia name change, they
can do it with charging at premium rates for the help line.”
Notes to Editors
1. Royal Mail claim to have halved the number of misdelivered letters. The
figures produced by Royal Mail are not independently audited. Royal Mail do not
classify as misdelivered, items of mail that are re-delivered or reposted by helpful
customers. The incidence of letters being put through the wrong letterbox will be
much higher than Royal Mail estimate it to be.
2. For more information about Postwatch visit www.postwatch.co.uk
3. Customers who receive mail for other addresses should let Royal Mail know
by calling 08457 740 740. This number should also be contacted to report parcels left
in plain view at a doorstep or to report a lost letter or parcel.