Royal Mail delays major change to service in UK until 2026

The amendment to deliveries was set to be enforced in July of this year

Royal Mail has delayed a major change to its delivery service until 2026.

The postal group have decided not to get rid off second class letter deliveries on Saturdays more widely across the UK until early next year.

Royal Mail’s owners, International Distribution Services (IDS), has been running a pilot scheme across 35 delivery offices to overhaul letter delivery services, which includes the decision to scrap second-class deliveries on Saturdays and amending the service to every other weekday.

The business was told it would be able to start making reforms to its services by regulator Ofcom from the end of July.

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However, during its half-year results today (November 12), bosses said it would not begin rolling out the new regulations further across the UK until early 2026.

Martin Seidenberg, IDS chief executive, said the reforms were a “massive task,” and added it would “take the time to get this right” and not rush into expanding the reforms across its nationwide network, according to the Press Association.

The IDS said it was still too early to determine when the changes would be fully completed, alongside which of its 1,200 delivery offices will next be in line for the overhaul.

Royal Mail’s decision to pause the rollout until next year comes as the delivery service was fined £21 million for missing its first and second class mail delivery targets in the 2024-25 financial year, regulator Ofcom said.

Ofcom discovered that Royal Mail had missed its delivery targets for both first and second-class post during an investigation. The postal service only delivered 77 per cent of first-class mail and 92.5 per cent of second-class mail on time in the 2024/25 financial year.

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These delivery percentages fell well short of its 93 per cent and 98.5 per cent targets. The communications watchdog has now said Royal Mail must urgently deliver a credible improvement plan or the fines are likely to continue.

Ian Strawhorne, director of enforcement at Ofcom, said: “Millions of important letters are arriving late, and people aren’t getting what they pay for when they buy a stamp.

“These persistent failures are unacceptable, and customers expect and deserve better.” He called on Royal Mail to rebuild confidence in its service “as a matter of urgency.”

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