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Royal Mail will end Saturday deliveries of second-class letters later this month, after Britain’s media regulator Ofcom approved a shake-up of the UK’s struggling universal postal service.
Second-class letters will be delivered on alternate weekdays from July 28, while first-class mail will still be delivered six days a week. The cuts could save the postal group between £250mn and £425mn a year, the regulator said.
“These changes are in the best interests of consumers and businesses, as urgent reform of the postal service is necessary to give it the best chance of survival,” said Natalie Black, Ofcom’s group director for networks and communications.
Royal Mail, which was fined £10.5mn by the regulator last year for missed delivery targets, is seeking to modernise its business amid a long-term decline in letters and rising demand for parcels.
As part of a wider package, Ofcom set new minimum delivery standards, saying the postal service now must deliver 99 per cent of the mail no more than two days late.
First-class targets were lowered from 93 per cent to 90 per cent delivered the next day, and second-class mail from 98.5 per cent to 95 per cent delivered within three days.
Martin Seidenberg, chief executive of Royal Mail’s parent company International Distribution Services, welcomed the changes saying they will “ensure that the postal service better reflects their needs and the realities of how customers send and receive mail today”.
IDS was last year acquired by investment firm EP Group, headed by Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský, who vowed to improve the financial strength of the postal service. The businessman is known for his investments in UK supermarket chain J Sainsbury and football club West Ham United.
