03 September 2004
Customers and regulators have savaged Royal Mail over its latest performance figures, which show it failed to meet any of its 15 licence targets.
Postwatch, which represents service users, said the 88.3% of first class post delivered on time during the April–June period represented the worst quarterly performance for three years.
Regulator Postcomm said it was 'concerned, but not surprised', by Royal Mail's performance, announced on August 31. It warned that this latest failure would feed into an existing review that could lead to financial penalties.
Royal Mail countered that preliminary figures for August showed that next day delivery of first class post hit 92%, up from 87% in May.
Chief executive Adam Crozier blamed the impact of service changes in the spring for disruption to deliveries. 'The changes were not optional, but essential to improve efficiency, and ensure Royal Mail can compete profitably against growing competition,' he said.
Crozier, who took personal control of letters in May, said that almost all the changes had now been implemented, altering the jobs of 140,000 staff and restructuring the transport operation. Royal Mail said it had returned more than £50m to customers who had suffered disruption through strike action last autumn.
One problem for the state-owned company is that all its services are being opened up to competition in 2007, and it has been embroiled in several battles with Postcomm over this.
The regulator warned: 'We know that the way Royal Mail implemented elements of its renewal plan, which affected the company's performance in the last quarter, persisted into the beginning of this year. The service to customers was not acceptable and Royal Mail has begun paying out compensation for last year.'
Postwatch chair Peter Carr noted that just six of the 121 postcode areas had exceeded the 92.5% target for first class deliveries, which meant that more than 1.7 million letters were delayed each day in the April-June quarter.
Carr said: 'For the past three years, customers have been paying higher prices for a declining service.'
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