Regulator considers five-day post service
Royal Mail could be allowed to cut deliveries from six to five days a week following a review by the postal regulator into the need for a six-day service in a competitive mail market.
The state-owned postal operator was allowed to end second daily deliveries three years ago to help restore profitability.
Now Postcomm, as part of a sweeping review of the future of regulation, is considering reducing compulsory deliveries to every home and workplace to five days a week. The regulator is also sympathetic to a request from Royal Mail to limit this universal service obligation to stamped letters and packages.
Sarah Chambers, Postcomm chief executive, told a conference in London on Monday that the current rules provided more of a “Rolls-Royce” universal service than elsewhere in Europe, where five days a week was standard.
The requirement to deliver post to the front door was another Rolls-Royce aspect of the universal service obligation, she added. In other European countries, post was often put in mailboxes at the entrance to a property or block of flats.
At the annual postal service conference organised by the Institute of Economic Affairs, Ms Chambers said that insisting on a Saturday delivery could lead to higher prices for other services.
Business users warned Friday and Saturday deliveries were important for direct marketing.
