Royal Mail DELAYS huge change to deliveries until early next year

ROYAL Mail has delayed a huge change to deliveries until early next year.

The postal service will not roll out changes to ditch second class letter deliveries on Saturdays more widely across the UK until early next year.

It has been running a pilot across 35 delivery offices to overhaul letter delivery services, including scrapping second class deliveries on Saturdays and changing the service to every other weekday.

It was given the green light by regulator Ofcom to roll out the shake up from the end of July.

But its owner, International Distribution Services, revealed in its half-year results today that it will now be rolling out the changes until early next year.

Royal Mail has been trialling the changes to delivery since February in 37 of its 1,200 delivery offices.

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It said previously it was “keen to move ahead with deployment as soon as possible”.

Previous rules had meant the postal service had to deliver post six days a week, from Monday to Saturday.

It was also required to drop off parcels on five days from Monday to Friday.

The industry regulator has maintained that first class mail should land on doorsteps six days a week.

The latest figures showed revenues at Royal Mail lifted 1.5% to £3.98 billion in the six months to September 28, as a 3.2% rise for parcels business offset a 0.4% fall for letters.

Total revenues across the wider IDS group rose 1.6% to £6.45 billion, with the GLS international parcel business seeing revenues increase by 1.9% to £2.48 billion.

The changes to postal services follow a consultation with thousands of people and businesses from various organisations.

Speaking at the time, Natalie Black, Ofcom’s group director for networks and communications, said reform of the postal service was “necessary”.

It’s part of an effort to make postal services more affordable, as stamp prices have been rising and the cost of delivering letters has gone up.

This is partly due to people sending less post.

Ofcom believes the changes will save Royal Mail between £250million and £425million a year.

More changes at Royal Mail

It comes as Royal Mail was been slammed by watchdog Ofcom for “persistent failures” with its service last month.

The company was fined £21million after it was revealed almost a quarter of first-class post arrived late.

The regulator’s investigation found that Royal Mail had missed delivery targets for first and second-class post.

It had only delivered 77% of first-class mail and 92.5% of second-class mail on time in the 2024/25 financial year.

Both of these percentages fell well short of its 93% and 98.5% targets.

The company has been warned by Ofcom to improve its operations, or face more fines.

The postal service was also fined £5.6million in November 2023 and £10.5million in December 2024.

Royal Mail is attempting a huge shake-up which will see it open thousands of shops across the UK for the first time.

Around 8,000 Collect+ convenience stores will be rebranded to Royal Mail shops.

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The new high street shops will be open for collecting, sending and returning parcels.

Plus, they’ll be selling Royal Mail postage over the counter for the first time – meaning customers can pay in person rather than online beforehand.