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Royal Mail failed to deliver about a quarter of first-class post on time in recent months, marking a worsening in its recent delivery performance, when it is already under investigation for missing delivery targets.
The company that owns Royal Mail, International Distribution Services (IDS), said about 76% of first-class mail arrived within one working day in the three months to 29 September, lower than the 79% achieved in the previous quarter. It added that 92% of first-class post arrived within two days.
Nearly 93% of second-class post was delivered on time, within three working days, which was also worse than the 94% of on-time deliveries made in the three months to the end of June.
The deterioration in delivery times will put further pressure on the company’s bosses just as a takeover deal is near to being finalised.
It also means that the company is moving further away from the annual targets set by the communications watchdog, Ofcom, which has previously called Royal Mail’s performance “not good enough”. Its rules require Royal Mail to deliver 93% of first-class post within one working day and 98.5% of second-class post within three days.
Royal Mail is already under investigation by Ofcom, which said in May it was looking into the company for missing its delivery time targets in the year to March 2024.
Under the watchdog’s requirements, Royal Mail should deliver at least 93% of first-class post across the UK within one working day of collection, and 98.5% of second-class post within three days over the whole financial year.
Ofcom fined the company £5.6m last November for failing to meet its first- and second-class delivery targets in the financial year to the end of March 2023.
Royal Mail said it is taking action to improve its quality of service and adapt to the structural decline in the volume of letters.
The Royal Mail chief operating officer, Alistair Cochrane, said: “Delivering a high quality service to our customers remains our top priority.”
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It comes as the Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský’s takeover bid for Royal Mail is reportedly close to being finalised. The £3.57bn takeover by Royal Mail’s largest shareholder, Křetínský’s EP Group, was agreed by parent company IDS in May.
However, the sale of the formerly state-owned service by a foreign buyer is being examined by the government under the National Security and Investment Act. Křetínský has agreed to additional concessions ito get the deal completed, according to the BBC.
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