Royal Mail posts another target miss

Next-day First Class performance jumped nine percentage points in a year but remains below Ofcom’s target as the postal service pushes ahead with a £500m improvement plan

Royal Mail has again fallen short of its delivery targets despite a sharp improvement in the number of First Class letters arriving the next working day.

The UK postal service delivered 85 per cent of First Class mail on time between 30 March and 28 June, up from 76 per cent during the same period last year.

But the figure remains below Ofcom’s current 90 per cent target for next-working-day delivery.

Second Class performance also improved, with 91.4 per cent of letters arriving within three working days compared with 89.3 per cent a year earlier, but that too remained short of the regulator’s 95 per cent target.

Royal Mail nevertheless said its latest figures showed its turnaround programme was beginning to deliver results.

First Class performance was well ahead of the 77 to 79 per cent range Royal Mail had set itself for the first quarter of its Improvement Plan, while the Second Class figure was within its target range of 90.5 to 91.5 per cent.

The company said 98.1 per cent of First Class letters were now arriving within three working days, while 98.4 per cent of Second Class mail was being delivered within five.

Across all letter products, 93 per cent were delivered on time and more than 99 per cent arrived within a week.

Jamie Stephenson, Royal Mail’s chief operating officer, said in a statement today: “These results are encouraging and show that the work we are doing to improve the service is having an impact. 

“First Class performance is well ahead of where we expected to be at this stage of our Improvement Plan, while Second Class is tracking in line with the plan.

“We know there is more to do. We are investing £500 million over five years and making significant changes across our network, including rolling out the new delivery model across all 1,200 of our delivery offices. 

“None of this progress would be possible without the continued hard work of our frontline colleagues, including through the recent extreme heat.”

The improvement comes after years of criticism over delayed letters and repeated failures to meet regulatory standards.

Ofcom is currently investigating Royal Mail’s performance during the 2025-26 financial year after just 75.7 per cent of First Class mail was delivered the next working day and 90.2 per cent of Second Class post arrived within three working days.

The regulator fined Royal Mail £21m last October for failing to meet its First and Second Class targets during 2024-25, following earlier penalties of £10.5m and £5.6m for failures in the previous two years.

Delivery requirements were changed from April, with the headline First Class target reduced to 90 per cent and the Second Class target to 95 per cent.

Royal Mail is also introducing a new delivery system under which First Class letters continue to be delivered six days a week but Second Class and other non-First Class letters are delivered every other weekday.

The company is reportedly rolling the model out across its 1,200 delivery offices as part of its five-year £500m improvement programme.

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