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Aviemore has ranked among the bottom three in the north of Scotland for the town’s tally of late letters, according to a new investigation.
Our experiment, which saw people across the north of Scotland send a total of 177 First Class envelopes, found that a third of letters posted from the town arrived late.
Aviemore’s rate of late letters was nearly five times higher than Royal Mail’s regulator-set target of seven per cent.
Graham Leadbitter, MP for Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey, said findings reflected years of declining postal services and that the local community “shouldn’t have to tolerate it”.
He praised the hard work of local postal staff, but argued it was clear that “resources are stretched” – resulting in “missed appointments, bills overdue, and gifts turning up late”.
Mr Leadbitter pushed Royal Mail to provide more funding for improvements to rural postal services, to ensure they are at least on a par with the Central Belt.
In response to our findings, a Royal Mail spokesperson said the company was taking “targeted action” to improve services by recruiting extra staff, simplifying its operations and rolling out a new delivery model.
The experiment
In response to concerns raised by local communities about missed delivery days and important letters arriving late, we decided to carry out an experiment.
We asked 12 people across the Highlands, Moray and Aberdeenshire to post three First Class letters a day for five days, to Inverness, Caithness and Moray.
Our senders represented communities spanning the north of Scotland, from Dornie to Banff and from Aviemore to Watten, and dropped a total of 177 envelopes in their local postboxes.
Our senders represented communities spanning the north of Scotland, from Dornie to Banff and from Aviemore to Watten, and dropped a total of 177 envelopes in their local postboxes.
In total, 36 of our letters were delivered late – just over 20 per cent.
That is nearly three times more than the seven per cent target set by industry watchdog Ofcom.
Earlier this year, the regulator confirmed that the standard for First Class deliveries will drop to a 10 per cent target in April.
However, this is still half as many late letters as the outcome of our experiment.
Overall, the worst results of all 12 sending locations were for Dingwall and Aberlour, in Moray.
In both locations, letters had a 40 per cent chance of arriving late.
While Aviemore came in second place, with 33 per cent arriving late – ahead of Banff in Aberdeenshire with 27 per cent.
Even letters making short journeys from Aviemore faced a surprisingly large amount of disruption, our experiment found, with one letter taking six days to travel 30 miles up the A9 to Inverness.
Adjusting for collection days and Sunday services, that meant the letter arrived a total of three days late.
Out of all 59 letters posted to Inverness, Aviemore was the worst-performing sending location.
In total 60 per cent of envelopes sent to the Highland capital from the town arrived late.
‘Rural communities rely on services like this the most’
Graham Leadbitter, MP for Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey said: “I’ve seen first hand how hard local Royal Mail staff work all year round to keep communities connected, but it’s clear resources are stretched and that not enough support has been directed to rural areas like this.
“Rural communities rely on services like this the most and already have to compete with challenges like poor to non-existent mobile signal – they shouldn’t expect the same from Royal Mail, particularly in the run up to Christmas.
“Postal delays aren’t just a headache, they’re missed appointments, bills overdue, and gifts turning up late.
“This area has had to compete with poor service for years and folk shouldn’t have to tolerate it – Royal Mail must commit more resources to our rural communities so they receive the same level of service as people in the central belt have come to expect.”
‘Reliable deliveries matter to our customers and to us’
A Royal Mail spokesperson said recent figures had shown that just over 73 per cent of First Class letters arrived on time, but improvements were being made.
“Reliable deliveries matter to our customers and to us, and where a route is affected we prioritise any delayed items the following day to keep any impact to a minimum,” the spokesperson added.
“We’re taking targeted action to improve performance, recruiting more frontline staff, simplifying operations and rolling out a new delivery model, with early pilots already showing measurable results.
“During the busy Christmas period, our teams are well prepared to keep deliveries consistent and reliable.”
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