Royal Mail has beaten its quality targets for delivery of First and Second Class letters duringthe first quarter of 2012 with the overwhelming majority of mail reaching or even outperforming the
targets set.According to Royal Mail’s latest independent report on performance covering the January-Marchperiod, 93.4% of stamped and franked (metered) First Class mail was delivered the next working dayafter posting, beating the target of 93.0%.
Second Class letters also outperformed the 98.5% delivery target within three working days with98.9% of letters delivered on time.
Royal Mail’s quality of service is measured independently by TNS based on over 230,000 sampleletters, parcels and packets sent to over 5,300 addresses over the first three months of thisyear.
Royal Mail stressed that the strong delivery performance was boosted by its huge modernisationprogramme with new technology and better equipment being deployed across the UK. In addition, theworking practices of postmen and women are changing which also resulted in strong performance ondelivery of Standard parcels, European International Delivery, and the majority of business mailservices.
Mark Higson, Managing Director of Operations and Modernisation at Royal Mail, said: “Our postmenand women are delivering to one of the highest and most challenging next-day performance targets inEurope while undertaking one of the UK’s biggest transformation projects. I pay tribute to ourpeople’s commitment to our customers as they work hard to transform Royal Mail. The biggest periodof change is underway and it is a demanding and painful process.”
“We have achieved target-beating performance at national level in the most recent period with107 Postcode Areas out of 118 achieving the minimum standards set for them. The challenge now is toensure that there is high performance in every part of the country as we continue to moderniseRoyal Mail,” he added.
In the 2011-12 financial year as a whole, Royal Mail narrowly missed its annual 93.0% FirstClass stamped and meter franked mail target with a 92.7% performance. Second Class stamped andmeter franked mail, which comprises about half of all stamped and meter franked mail, beat itstarget with a 98.7% performance.
