Royal Mail is to apply to the regulator for a special exemption, after revealing today that thesevere weather in December caused the UK mail operator’s performance to drop below its expected
standards.The state-owned firm’s latest Quality of Service Report, covering quarter three from 6 Septemberto 5 December 2010, revealed that Royal Mail broadly achieved its performance targets on acumulative basis across the nine-month period to December. However, performance in the thirdquarter, and particularly ‘period 9’ (8 November to 5 December), “was adversely impacted by theonset of exceptionally severe weather conditions in various parts of the UK”.
Mark Higson, Royal Mail’s managing director of operations and modernisation, said: “Despitedoing everything possible to get the mail through in exceptionally difficult circumstances, we wereunable to deliver everything to our usual high standards. We apologise to our customers. We hopethey understand how hard our staff worked to ensure as many items as possible were delivered beforeChristmas.”
In recognition of the severity of the weather conditions that led to the decline of servicestandards during the quarter-three period, Royal Mail said the regulator was able to grant thecompany an exemption in such circumstances, “and the company believes that these conditions warrantour application on this occasion”.
Despite the onset of very severe weather (see below), Royal Mail was able to maintain acumulative result for the first three quarters of the year of 92%, against a 93% target for FirstClass Stamped and Metered Mail. For Second Class Stamped and Metered Mail, Royal Mail maintained acumulative result of 98.3% against a target of 98.5% for the same period.
However, the severe weather had a negative impact on Quarter Three performance. The servicetarget for First Class Stamped and Metered Mail arriving the next day is 93%. Royal Mail achieved89.2% for quarter three, “with the very bad weather being a significant factor towards the end ofthe period”. The target for Second Class Stamped and Metered Mail is 98.5%. Royal Mail achieved97.2% for the quarter.
The company’s performance during the Christmas period was “very significantly impacted by severeand prolonged weather conditions”, as UK road, rail and air services experienced very significantand protracted disruption. Under the terms of the company’s licence, the Christmas period is notpart of the Quality of Service measure.
From 22 November to 9 January, there were only three days that were not impacted by materialrail, air or road transport difficulties, Royal Mail said. During the Christmas period, Royal Mail’s daily post bag doubled to 130 million items a day.
