Royal Mail delays major service changes until next year

Royal Mail has announced that previously confirmed reforms to UK mail services will not be implemented nationwide until early next year.

International Distribution Services (IDS), the parent company of Royal Mail, announced a delay to its new delivery reforms last week, including plans to end second-class letter deliveries on Saturdays and changing the service to every other weekday.

The major changes to the Universal Postal Service (UPS) were announced in February and came into legal effect on July 28^th of this year. Royal Mail has since been running a pilot scheme across a selection of delivery offices.

Royal Mail recently disclosed that fewer than three-quarters of first-class letters were delivered on time over recent months, as they prepare for the upcoming service overhaul.

Speaking of the decision to delay the reforms, Mark Statton, head of public sector strategy at mail solutions provider, Quadient, says: “Royal Mail’s decision to delay scrapping Saturday second-class letter deliveries until early 2026 is a setback, but it’s also an opportunity to get the reforms right.

“The pilot sites have already revealed the operational pressures that such changes can bring, and pushing ahead without addressing them could compromise service reliability, especially as we approach the peak season.”

The initial announcements of changes to the UPS were welcomed by some within print and direct mail, despite others warning of the likely impact on delivery times.

At the time, Lucy Swanston, chair of The Strategic Mailing Partnership (SMP), said: “As an industry, Ofcom’s announcement represents the most significant change to the Universal Service in decades.

“The changes announced today we hope will help Royal Mail better protect the one-price-goes-anywhere service that our customers value, and support the delivery of a more reliable, efficient, and financially sustainable postal service.”