Review of Royal Mail's collection and delivery times

Postcomm has concluded its review of Royal Mail’s collection and delivery times. Its aim was to establish whether customers’ needs remain sufficiently protected at a time when Royal Mail’s practices are changing.

Most post is collected and delivered by Royal Mail, whose Universal Service Obligation means it must make at least one collection from every post box and at least one delivery to every home or business premises every working day. However, Royal Mail is not obliged to specify the times by which these collections and deliveries should be made.

The original consultation was launched in reaction to concerns over Royal Mail bringing forward final collection times from some post boxes, particularly in rural areas. In some cases, final collections in rural areas are now made as early as 9am. Also, following Royal Mail’s decision to implement a single daily delivery, most mail is being delivered later in the day.

In June 2007, Postcomm published its proposals document which summarised the consultation responses and findings from the research. The evidence indicated that the majority of customers were satisfied with the postal service they received e.g. price, collection and delivery times in most areas and ability to post their items, including parcels.

However, the evidence also indicated that an appropriate and proportionate outcome of the review would be to ensure that action is taken to restore early rural collection times to levels that are more acceptable to customers, and to seek to prevent any significant deterioration in service levels going forward.

Postcomm recommended that Royal Mail take action to restore early rural collection times to levels which were more acceptable to customers. Royal Mail agreed to review all collection points with a pre-midday collection time on Monday to Friday, with a view to putting back the final collection time as close to midday as possible – where this was reasonable.

Postcomm conducted a further consultation on these proposals, and, having considered the responses and available evidence, the regulator considers that this remains the most appropriate and proportionate course of action.

However, as a result of the concerns about delivery times Postcomm intends to continue to include this issue in its ongoing research of postal users’ needs, and consider the cost and efficiency arguments in the course of the review of the universal service and the discussions leading to the next price control in 2010. Whilst Postcomm is concerned with the impact later delivery times can have on some postal users there is not enough evidence to justify a regulatory intervention at the present time.

Review of Royal Mail's collection and delivery times

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