Royal Mail defers second-class delivery overhaul past Christmas
Final 107 hubs wait until January as Kretinsky-owned monopoly renegotiates decline, Ofcom targets still missed
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Royal Mail has revealed it will halt the full rollout of its second-class post overhaul until after Christmas amid calls for the service to urgently improve its performance (PA Archive)
PA Archive
Royal Mail is hiring 22,000 temporary workers over the Christmas period to help transport, sort and deliver the additional mail expected over the festive period.
independent.co.uk
Royal Mail is deferring the final stage of its second-class delivery overhaul until January, holding back the last 107 of its 1,200 delivery hubs until the 11th. The company calls it a "pragmatic approach" that lets staff concentrate on the Christmas period; the reform itself arrives regardless.
Under the restructuring, second-class letters move to alternate weekday deliveries and Saturday second-class service disappears entirely. The changes are already live in nearly 1,100 locations, with a further 15 due by early November. Royal Mail's parent, International Distribution Services, was bought last year by Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský, whose EP Group inherited a statutory monopoly negotiating the terms of its own decline.
The pattern is familiar. Letter volumes have collapsed; the universal service obligation remains; the regulator Ofcom lowered the delivery targets Royal Mail persistently missed. In the first quarter the company delivered 85 per cent of first-class mail the next day against a 90 per cent target, and 91.4 per cent of second-class within three days against 95 per cent — figures the company presents as marked improvement on a year earlier. Chief executive Alistair Cochrane says offices on the new model now reach about 95 per cent of addresses daily, up from 88 per cent.
Politicians are performing the same ritual from the other side. Prime Minister Andy Burnham used Prime Minister's Questions to call the service "unacceptable for far too long" and warned of "further measures" unless a plan appears quickly. The Communication Workers Union wants an emergency summit and claims the organisation is "on the brink of collapse" — a union whose agreement Royal Mail needed to slow its own rollout. The company has meanwhile announced 2,500 head office job cuts, about 2 per cent of its workforce, and is hiring 22,000 temporary workers for the Christmas peak.
Royal Mail published an improvement plan in the spring promising £500 million for service quality over five years. The final 107 offices will find out what the new model feels like after the decorations come down.