Royal Mail faces official investigation for not delivering letters on time Business

Royal Mail is under investigation by regulators for failing to deliver first and second class mail on time.

Ofcom said there were reasonable grounds to believe the postal monopoly fell far short of statutory objectives.

The regulator said it takes “very seriously meeting quality of service targets”.

Royal Mail, which is due to drop from the FTSE 100 index next week after the share price has fallen in recent months, admitted earlier this month that almost one in five first class deliveries had not done on time.

This is, however, an improvement on the previous year, when one in four letters and parcels breached the legal minimum.

At the time, Royal Mail chiefs blamed the “exceptional continuing effects” of the pandemic for its performance.

Ofcom said it would now gather further evidence to determine the significance of the breaches.

Royal Mail admitted that its “performance needs to improve” and said more than 86% of first class mail was delivered the next working day in the last week of April.

He added that he had taken immediate action in response to omicron to restore full service, including “hiring additional temporary staff and creating a specialist dedicated delivery task force to provide targeted support to the most affected”.

Before the pandemic, Royal Mail delivered 92.6% of first class mail within one working day and had already been fined £1.5m by Ofcom for failing to meet its delivery target of 93% first class next business day.

Grant McPherson, Chief Operating Officer of Royal Mail, said: “We are sorry to any customers who have been impacted by service levels during this time.

“We know we need to improve our performance and some of the steps we have taken to address the issues are paying off. Our ongoing transformation program introduces new ways of working and a new delivery model will optimize our network for parcels.