500,000 letters a week go astray

THE Royal Mail admitted yesterday that an estimated 500,000 letters or parcels are lost or delayed every week.

Thousands of letters are delivered to the wrong house by mistake, its research shows. Thousands more go astray because they are badly addressed. The figures follow an announcement by the company’s parent, Consignia, that there will be fewer deliveries. It plans to merge the first and second class services and charge customers up to pounds 14 a week for pre-9am deliveries – although take-up of the scheme has so far been scant. Mick Linsell, managing director of the Royal Mail’s service delivery division, said that everything would be done to tackle the problem of missing post. He said the company planned to install better equipment and improve training. However, he said the amount of post that went astray was comparatively small, considering the volume of letters sent every day. “All the research and analysis we have done shows that the amount of correctly addressed mail that does not reach the right person is less than 0.1 per cent of our overall volume of 82 million letters a day.” More than 15 million poorly addressed letters still arrived at the right place and on time each week, Mr Lindsell said. “Our people accomplish some real feats in delivering badly addressed mail on time,” he said.