Royal Mail exceeded full year Quality of Service targets

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Royal Mail exceeded the regulatory First Class mail target (93.0%) for the financial year 2016-17, delivering 93.1% the next working day. They also exceeded the Second Class mail target of 98.5%, with 98.9% delivered within three working days.

For the fourth quarter Royal Mail exceeded the 93.0% First Class mail target by 0.1% and for Second Class exceeded the 98.5% target by 0.3%. The only time they missed a target in any single quarter in the 2016-2017 year was for First Class mail in Q3 with they are -1.1 down on the 93% requirement but overall for the year the target was exceeded.

However Royal Mail missed their 99% target for Special Delivery by -0.4% this last quarter and only achieving a cumulative 98.5% for the year.

It is also pointed out that many parcels aren’t sent by services covered by the Royal Mail Quality of Service targets.

“We are very proud of the service we offer our customers. Our postmen and women deliver to some of the most challenging performance targets in Europe. I would like to thank all our people for their great efforts throughout the year. We are committed to maintaining and improving these high standards of service for all our customers.”
– Sue Whalley, Chief Operations Officer, Royal Mail

The best and worst performing UK Postcodes

Overall, if you live in Uxbridge you’re most likely to get your mail on time as you live in the postcode area where posties exceeded their target the most over the year with 95.1% of First Class Stamped and Metered PCA Delivered on time.

The worst performing areas (which are exempted from Royal Mail’s targets due to the sea getting too choppy to cross at many times of the year) are the Hebrides at 56.3% with Lerwick coming in last at 54.9%. The worst performing postcode area that is included in the targets was Inverness where 89% of mail arrived on time.

6 Responses

  1. Can Royal Mails stats actually be believed? Does it only count when people bother to report a problem?

  2. 6.9% of 1st class items not arriving still falls way below Ebay’s top rated standard, which will now shortly be dropping to just 3.0% permitted late delivery.

    The majority of cheaper, smaller items are still sent by RM and many are not of sufficient value to justify Signed For.

    This leaves sellers without a viable option to meet Ebay’s delivery criteria, unless you build in extra handling days, or understate delivery, e.g, advertise second class and send by first class.

    The whole situtation is pants.

  3. Overall we I am happy with the RM service.

    Our current “Late delivery rate” on Ebay is 0.5% all items go by RM

    We don’t send that many First Class items and although we state a 1 day despatch, most items go on the same day.

    All Second Class mail posted on a Saturday is sent First Class by RM

    We are now using the tracked at delivery point and this has cut down the lost parcel problems. It also should show the delivery day.

    What do you class as being delivered?

    RM can not be held responsible for not delivering an item if the person is not home and customers, when answering the Ebay feedback on which day the parcel arrived are likely to say the day they got it in their hand, even if it took them 3-4 days to collect it.

  4. Sorry it is a total sham, I do not believe any of these figures. LOST mail is still a major issue (well claims of it). A system designed to frustrate and delay leads to many items not being reported, they are failing at a drastic level here.
    We are still getting the same issues as 10 years ago it is not on. Now from the mail we order the vast majority of it comes late, by a day but still late.
    2d barcodes with large letter needs to get sorted also and a proper security system to deal with mail theft.
    RMG support for business is shocking, all we ever get is rubbish about sending everything special delivery I would rather they spent the marketing on the network.
    I dont want to see them nationalised but they do need more “scrutiny” they take PAYMENT but do not deliver. They serve the shareholder not the customer.
    Overseas times are also very poor, we know as we run test runs all the time.
    All this and we have to deal with marketplaces like eBay who are misleading people about delivery times.

  5. we dont report loss or late deliveries its just not worth the admin and time,
    ebay and buyers always consider it our fault anyway

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