Tag: Royal Mail

The Royal Mail is paying out a record GBP50 million in compensation to business and individual customers because of late delivery of post, today’s report showed. More than GBP35 million will be given to companies under a compensation scheme described by the Royal Mail as the fairest in Europe. The scheme refunds 0.1% of a customer’s bill for every 0.1% drop in performance below a set standard. Another GBP16.5 million is being paid to smaller firms and individual customers who claim compensation for delayed post.

Royal Mail said today that more than nine in ten First Class letters are now arriving the day after posting following a temporary dip in performance between April and June. Preliminary figures for August show First Class, next-day delivery performance is currently hitting around 92% – a major improvement of five percentage points above May, the period when there was the greatest level of operational change. “There is now real evidence the service is getting better,” said Royal Mail’s Chief Executive, Adam Crozier. “Clearly there were some problems in the spring but the service has improved, month-on-month, since May. We are now approaching our target level for First Class mail.”

Those unfamiliar with this Government’s penchant for saying one thing in public then doing exactly the opposite behind closed doors might start to wonder what on earth the Department of Trade and Industry is playing at over the future structure of Royal Mail. Leaders of Royal Mail’s still powerful unions think the answer is already clear. They believe the Government has given them cast-iron guarantees that it will remain in public ownership in return for a GBP1 million bung into the Labour Party’s coffers and support at the next election. But now the Mail on Sunday has learnt that the DTI, the department responsible for this huge national asset, has officials deployed full-time looking at alternative forms of ownership. Regular talks have been held with investment bankers, Royal Mail executives and Richard Gillingwater, head of the Shareholder Executive, which looks after the state’s business interests.