Royal Mail admitted late last week that it failed to meet 80 percent of its delivery targets.
Royal Mail must meet service standards under a license issued by Postcomm, the postal regulator. Royal Mail failed to meet the 92.5 percent license stipulations set by Postcomm, achieving only 91.7 percent.
Royal Mail, however, said its First-Class service is at its most reliable for seven years, with the average first class mail performance 2 percent higher than the previous year. In the 2002-03 fiscal year, 91.8 percent of First-Class letters were delivered next day compared with 89.9 percent the year before.
“We are disappointed to have failed the license target by a small margin, but we are encouraged that the improvement over last year demonstrates that the efforts of our people to drive up performance are working,” said Jerry Cope, Royal Mail’s managing director for the UK. “In particular, our employees coped magnificently with the unprecedented severe weather experienced at the beginning of February, which undoubtedly affected our ability to deliver the performance required in the license.”
Because of this poor performance, Royal Mail may face penalties from Postcomm, according to reports.
