Royal Mail have announced changes which will impact 2nd Class, Economy letters and Large Letters, basically meaning that there will no longer be a daily delivery and Saturday deliveries for these products will be scrapped.
Royal Mail have given retailers advance notice that 2nd Class, Economy letters and Large Letters will be delivered 5 days per week on alternate weekdays (Monday – Friday) from the 7th of July 2025 (or the date Ofcom agrees changes to the Universal Service Obligation (USO) if this is later).
From current experience, I won’t even notice this change. Royal Mail are brilliant at delivering my parcels on time, but have consistently failed to deliver 1st Class letters on time to me and honestly they appear to treat them as 2nd Class anyway.
However, regardless how poor Royal Mail’s recent performance has been, this will doubtless impact ecommerce retailers, especially for low value goods shipped with economy services – large letters are the biggest likely impact.
Royal Mail say that they will phase this change in from the go-live date. Service speed for these services remains unchanged. This change reflects the Ofcom proposal to redefine the Universal Service Obligation to support the financial sustainability of the USO.
The changes will impact Business Mail, Subscription Mail, Publishing Mail, Advertising Mail including Catalogue Option Partially Addressed, Sustainable Mail and Response Services.
Delivery of First Class letters will remain unchanged.
7 Responses
“ this will doubtless impact ecommerce retailers, especially for low value goods shipped with economy services – large letters are the biggest likely impact.”
Most e-commerce sellers use tracked services which won’t be affected unless Royal Mail change the terms of tracked48.
When it comes to low value items, Royal Mail 48 Large Letter is very commonly used, from the smallest sellers, to the big boys at the top. There really isn’t a choice if selling something for £3.50 inc P&P.
These have some basic level of tracking with the delivery confirmation scan, but they are not treated the same as a Large Letter or Parcel sent on Royal Mail Tracked 48. Scans may not be performed, and it is not unusual for them to take over a week to be delivered.
This will surely get worse if they go to alternate delivery days and not on a weekend.
Are Royal Mail 48 Large Letter items also affected?
They would be. Royal Mail treat them the same as regular letters.
royalmail as been doing this since covid
My understanding is that any changes to the Universal Service Obligation need to be signed off by the Government. Pre election Kier Starmer stated that he had no plans to agree any amendments. So are Royal Mail making these changes without ratification and will Ofcom still be fining them for service failures?
As Royal Mail will be delivering 2nd Class Large Letters on alternate days Monday to Friday and not on Saturdays.
1. I wonder if Amazon and Ebay will adjust their Estimated Delivery Dates to compensate for this slower Royal Mail delivery service?
2. I wonder what they mean by alternate weekdays – I presume it will be Monday, Wednesday & Friday and nothing on Tuesday & Thursday?