Royal Mail failed to meet its quality targets for delivery of First Class letters but beat itstarget for standard parcels during the financial year 2012/13 despite growing volumes due to
e-commerce, according to the latest Royal Mail Quality of Service report.Overall, the overwhelming majority of mail reached the targets set for the full year 2012/2013.Standard parcels even outperformed the delivery target of 90.0% as 96.3% were delivered on time. “Parcels are a key part of Royal Mail’s business, and parcel volumes are increasing, fuelled by thegrowth in online shopping,” the UK postal operator stressed.
However, the company narrowly missed the 93.0% target for First Class mail with 92.4% of lettersdelivery the next working day after posting when taking into account disruption from externalevents. The unadjusted figure was 91.7%. The company explained that the disruption was due to twoperiods of prolonged severe weather and the effect of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games,highlighting the expected effect of the games before the beginning of London 2012.
Second Class letters met the delivery target with 98.5% of letters delivered within threeworking days.
Royal Mail is continuing its modernisation programme which it claimed is one of the biggesttransformations underway anywhere in UK industry. New technology and better equipment is beingdeployed nationwide and the working practices of postmen and women are changing.
Mark Higson, Managing Director of Operations and Modernisation, said: “Royal Mail’s postmen andwomen work extremely hard to deliver to some of the most demanding quality of service standards inEurope. Our modernisation involves substantial changes and we know there are areas where we need toimprove our service and we are committed to doing this.”
“In a recent survey, eight out of ten Royal Mail customers were pleased with the helpfulness ofour postmen and women and it is particularly pleasing to see how well we have performed against thestandard retail parcels target. With the continued growth of e-retail, we recognise the importanceof parcel delivery performance,” he added.
