Royal Mail Delivers Only 75% of First Class Letters on Time

Royal Mail delivered only 75.7% of first class letters on time in the twelve months ending March 2026, BBC Business reported Friday. That figure falls nearly 18 percentage points short of the company’s 93% first class delivery target. The result marks another difficult chapter for the 500-year-old institution under its new private owner.

Performance Gaps Persist Across Letter Classes

Second class mail also missed its benchmark. Around 90.2% of second class letters arrived within three working days, against a target of 98.5%. Chief operating officer Jamie Stephenson said the company was investing heavily in network reliability. He noted that transforming an operation of Royal Mail’s scale requires time. The firm said it expects to hit revised, lower targets of 90% for first class and 95% for second class by this time next year.

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Six Years Without Meeting Annual Targets

Royal Mail’s on-time delivery record has not met annual letter targets since before the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted operations. That six-year streak of misses prompted Ofcom to issue a £21 million fine in October last year. It was the third-largest penalty the communications regulator had ever handed down. Postal workers told the BBC in February this year that some letters sat undelivered for weeks. Staff said they were directed to prioritise parcel delivery because it generates higher margins. Royal Mail owner Daniel Kretinsky denied any such instruction existed when he appeared before a parliamentary select committee in March. He told MPs he was deeply sorry for every late letter.

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Regulator and Consumer Groups Lose Patience

Consumer advocacy group Citizens Advice said the latest numbers reflected no meaningful change. Policy director Tom MacInnes described the performance as “business as usual” and criticised Royal Mail for asking the public to wait another year for improvement against already-reduced targets. Separately, Ofcom has agreed to allow Royal Mail to drop Saturday second class deliveries as part of a broader operational restructure. The company has also offered part-time postal workers extended hours to bolster delivery capacity. EP Group’s takeover of Royal Mail was approved by shareholders at the end of April last year in a deal worth roughly £3.6 billion.

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