Under Ofcom rules, Royal Mail is required to meet specific delivery performance targets across the whole financial year, excluding the Christmas period, which is defined as the period beginning on the first Monday in December and ending on the New Year public holiday in the following January.
Among other targets, Royal Mail must deliver 93% of First Class mail within one working day of collection; and deliver 98.5% of Second Class mail within three working days of collection.
But the postal operator said it did not meet the above performance targets in 2024/25, as it delivered 76.5% of First Class mail within one working day; and delivered 92.2% of Second Class mail within three working days.
The reporting period was 1 April 2024 to 30 March 2025. Royal Mail’s Quality of Service is measured by Spectos, an independent Quality of Service measurement specialist.
Ofcom will now investigate whether there are reasonable grounds for believing that Royal Mail has failed to comply with its obligations in 2024/25.
“If we determine that Royal Mail has failed to comply with its obligations, we will consider whether to impose a financial penalty,” it stated.
Royal Mail said it delivered 98.6% of Second Class mail within five days and 92.3% of First Class mail within two days. It also noted that its delivery of 76.5% of First Class mail within one working day marked a 2% improvement year-on-year.
The company added it continued to make long-term improvements to reliability through a range of initiatives including recruitment and retention, reducing sickness absence, extending delivery times, and increased automation.
It said that while these efforts are yielding results, structural reform of the Universal Service was also urgently needed to deliver a more reliable service that is better placed to meet customers’ changing needs.
Royal Mail chief operating officer Alistair Cochrane said: “Our quality of service is not yet where we want it to be and we will continue to work hard to deliver the standards our customers expect. We are actively modernising Royal Mail, and while these efforts are beginning to deliver results, we know there is still more to do.
“We will continue to focus on the actions within our control but this isn’t something we can fix alone.
“Universal Service reform is essential to provide a more reliable and sustainable service for the benefit of all our customers.”
In December 2024, Ofcom fined Royal Mail £10.5m for failing to meet its First and Second Class delivery targets in 2023/24; and in November 2023, it fined the company £5.6m for failing to meet its targets in 2022/23.
Last year’s investigation found that from April 2023 to March 2024, Royal Mail had delivered 74.7% of First Class mail on time and 92.7% of Second Class mail on time.
