First-class post within three days may cost even MORE, warns Royal Mail

First-class post may no longer be delivered within three days without increasing prices for customers, Royal Mail warned yesterday.

The group also claimed that the watering down of delivery targets would still result in ‘significant costs’.

Royal Mail’s legal requirements mean it has to deliver post to UK addresses six days per week for the same price, regardless of distance, under its universal service obligation (USO).

Watchdogs proposed lowering the target for first-class mail to arrive the next working day from 93 to 90 per cent of deliveries. The target for second-class mail to arrive within three days would be cut from 98.5 to 95 per cent.

Ofcom also proposed ‘tail of mail’ targets requiring 99.5 per cent of first and second-class mail to arrive in three and five days respectively. But Royal Mail said this would ‘put the benefits of USO reform at risk and could lead to materially higher prices for customers’.

It is likely to provoke further anger after the cost of a first-class stamp increased to £1.70 on Monday – the sixth price rise in just three years. Amanda Fergusson, of the Greeting Cards Association, said customers ‘expect more for less from Royal Mail, not even less for significantly more’.

The rise is likely to provoke further anger after the cost of a first-class stamp increased to £1.70 on Monday

Royal Mail also wants Ofcom to remove ‘unnecessary regulation’ which it said prevented it from offering parcel tracking. Martin Seidenberg, boss of parent company IDS, said ‘changes we seek are important measures to ensure we can protect the one-price-goes-anywhere universal service for years to come.’

A consultation on Ofcom’s proposals closes today, with a decision due this summer. They include plans to cut second-class deliveries to two or three days a week and axe them on Saturdays.

Royal Mail, about to fall under foreign ownership for the first time with a takeover by Czech Daniel Kretinsky set to be completed this month, has argued that the changes are needed to save money amid a decline in letter volumes.

Last night, The Telegraph reported that the NHS will be given its own postage class to stop late letters leading to missed appointments, with bardcodes automatically identifying and sorting them.