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The postal giant was slapped with the third-largest fine ever imposed by Ofcom last month
Royal Mail bosses have issued an update to customers on proposed changes that were tipped to come into effect before the end of this year.
The heads of the UK’s primary postal service said on Wednesday that it will not roll out adjustments that will see it ditch second-class letter deliveries on Saturdays more widely across the UK until early next year.
International Distribution Services (IDS) – a subsidiary group – has been running a pilot across 35 delivery offices to overhaul letter delivery services.
The trial has included scrapping second-class deliveries on Saturdays and changing the service to every other weekday.
It was given the green light by regulator Ofcom to start making the reforms from the end of July.
But in its half-year results, published on Wednesday, the group said it would not begin further rolling out of the new regime until the first quarter of 2026.
IDS chief executive Martin Seidenberg had said, alongside full-year figures in September, that the reforms were a “massive task” and that it would “take the time to get this right”.
The decision was made not to rush into expanding the reforms across its nationwide network.
IDS said at the time that it was too early to say when the changes would be completed and which of its 1,200 delivery offices would be next in line for the overhaul.
Last month, Ofcom fined Royal Mail £21 million for missing its annual first and second-class mail delivery targets, leading to millions of letters arriving late across the UK.
It marked the third-largest fine ever imposed by the communications watchdog.
Royal Mail delivered 77% of first class mail and 92.5% of second class mail on time during the 2024-25 financial year, Ofcom found, which was short of its respective 93% and 98.5% targets.
This is now the third year in a row that the British delivery giant has been fined for not meeting its service requirements.
Royal Mail has hired 20,000 temporary workers ahead of the busy Christmas season, with 7,000 new vans added to its fleet.
They also recently announced the opening of four seasonal parcel sorting centres with an additional 118,000 square metres of extra space, which it said was equivalent to 16.5 football pitches.
Mr Seidenberg said: “We never underestimate the important role we play at Christmas and our responsibility to deliver for our customers again this year.”
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