Royal Mail has failed to meet its legal target for first-class mail deliveries due to thecombined impact of last spring’s Icelandic ash cloud disruption and severe winter weather.
The British postal operator achieved a 91.4% delivery quality performance in the year endingMarch 30, 2011, compared to its regulatory target of 93%. But excluding the disruption to air, roadand rail services last April and during “the worst weather in living memory” during the wintermonths, the company would have hit met the 93% target dead-on. Second Class mail delivery exceededits 98.5% target with a 98.8% performance if account is taken of the exceptional events.
Despite the exceptional conditions, Royal Mail achieved a 94.3% success rate for ‘StandardParcels’ against a target of 90.0% per cent – before any adjustment for exceptional events. Thecompany also achieved its European International Delivery Target achieving 93.1% against a targetof 85.0%. Mailsort 3, a bulk business mail service, also beat its 97.5% target without adjustmentwith a performance of 98.0%.
Mark Higson, Managing Director of Operations and Modernisation, said: “Royal Mail’s performancein the face of exceptional challenges in the last financial year is a tribute to the determinationand dedication of our postmen and women. We did everything possible to deliver the mail in the faceof prolonged spells of extreme winter weather and the unprecedented closure of UK airspace.”
Royal Mail said it was still beating the 93.0% First Class delivery target up to early Novemberwith a 93.3% performance for the first eight periods of the financial year – despite the impact ofthe ash cloud in the spring. But last winter saw the coldest December in the last 100 years,according to the Met Office. Other delivery firms withdrew their services at times when Royal Mailmaintained deliveries with a £20 million investment in additional transport, an extra 20,000recruits and 18,000 additional delivery rounds. Royal Mail also faced a difficult recovery periodafter Christmas as parts of the UK continued to suffer from poor weather and transportdifficulties. There were also heavy business mail postings in January.
Under the terms of its licence from Postcomm, Royal Mail is now asking the regulator to applythese adjustments to the 2010-11 Quality of Service figures to recognise the impact of the severityof the weather conditions and the disruption caused by the volcanic ash cloud. The company said itbelieves the exceptional conditions fully warrant adjustments as Royal Mail did everything possibleto cope with events beyond its control.
Postcomm will reach a view on these adjustments later this year.
In response, Robert Hammond, Head of Post at Consumer Focus, the British watchdog organisation,said: “We cannot judge whether Royal Mail has failed to meet its service targets from this data.Royal Mail uses figures it has adjusted to take account of disruption from snow and volcanic ash.These adjustments have not yet been reviewed or accepted by Postcomm and the regulator is unlikelyto do so until the autumn. Until it does so, this remains Royal Mail’s view only.
“Bad conditions clearly had a big impact on mail at certain points of the year, and thededication of hardworking postmen and women delivering in difficult weather was appreciated by manyconsumers. However this is the first time that Royal Mail has ever released “adjusted” figuresaround their Quality of Service Report and the un-adjusted figures show Royal Mail failing three ofits benchmark targets.”
