UK Royal Mail reports improvements in lost mail volumes, and rise in inquiries and complaints

New figures today from Royal Mail showed a 5% improvement in the amount of UK mail delivered without loss, damage or substantial delay during 2004-05 than in the preceding year. More than 99.93% of the 22 billion letters collected and delivered by Royal Mail were last year delivered safely, to the correct address and without substantial delay.

There was also an 11% rise in the number of inquiries and complaints to Royal Mail’s customer call centres – from 1,647,000 in 2003-04 to 1,824,000 last year, when mail services were disrupted because of massive changes in Royal Mail’s network.

Royal Mail Operations Director Tom Melvin said, “Last year was a period of massive, but necessary change. Now we have moved on, delivering the best quality service in ten years and still improving. But we aren’t complacent – we take every problem and complaint seriously. We know we’ve a long way to go and need to keep improving our service to customers.

“Because we want to improve, we’ve actively encouraged people to tell us when we do get something wrong, or when a letter goes astray. Earlier this year we sent a leaflet to more than 27 million addresses, giving people advice on how to raise problems – both directly with Royal Mail and, if issues are not resolved, with Postwatch. Changed delivery times inevitably require a period of adjustment, but it remains the case that fewer than one letter in 10,000 prompts an inquiry or complaint to Royal Mail.

“However, despite the massive improvements in our overall standard of service, there is still much more to do. We will never be satisfied with even a tiny percentage of customers’ mail experiencing problems. Over the course of last year we’ve worked hard to address the real causes of problems, and have put concrete, practical plans in place which will deliver the further improvements in performance that our customers deserve.”

Just over 15 million letters out of 22 billion – less than 0.07% – were lost, did not arrive at the correct destination, or did arrive at the correct address but with such a delay that they were recorded as “lost.” This represents an improvement of 45% on the position three years ago, before Royal Mail’s Renewal Plan was implemented, and an improvement of 5% over last year.

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