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Royal Mail is looking into launching a “bin collection”-style website which would tell households which day they will receive mail.
If plans go ahead, customers would input their postcode to discover which days their letter deliveries are due. This would run separately from services dedicated to tracking individual letters or parcels, it has been reported.
It comes as the 507-year-old postal service pushes to cut its services to save costs.
Last week, the regulator, Ofcom, said second-class letter deliveries in the UK could be scrapped on Saturdays, as it considers reforms to the universal service obligation (USO), the remit held by Royal Mail to deliver nationwide at one price six days a week.
Royal Mail’s owner proposed cutting deliveries of second-class letters to two or three days a week earlier this year, which would impact nearly 1,000 jobs but save £300m a year in the process.
It is understood that Royal Mail is in the early stages of devising how postal workers’ delivery routes would be allocated under the alternate-day system. Ofcom said it is studying these proposals and would make a decision next year.
A senior industry source told The Guardian: “The idea is that it would work in the same way as the bin collection site. Anything Royal Mail can do to show that cuts can be done smoothly, and the service can be more predictable and reliable could convince Ofcom.”
In England and Wales, consumers can use a dedicated government webpage to check which days their bins will be collected.
The industry source added: “Those who rely on the service the most will be those, typically older, people who are not connected to the internet to check when their deliveries are due.
“Also, if this lists when the post is supposed to be delivered – that’s not a guarantee the delivery will happen given the current state of the service.
“The fine for failure against delivery targets last year was too small against the financial benefits of stripping out operational costs. Royal Mail must not be allowed to reduce the service without improving reliability.”
Royal Mail delivered less than 80 per cent of first-class post on time in the three months to 30 June this year.
Ofcom is considering reducing its first-class target from 93 per cent of mail delivered by the next working day to 90 per cent, and second-class within three days from 98.5 per cent to 95 per cent as a result, The Sunday Times reported.
The regulator announced it is investigating Royal Mail for its poor service after fining the company £5.6m last year for missing delivery targets.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “Ahead of any potential reform of the universal service, Royal Mail is exploring a range of options to ensure customers have the information they need about their local postal services.”
From next month, first-class stamps will rise by 30p to £1.65. Second-class will remain at 85p.
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