UK fines Royal Mail more than $6 million over late mail delivery

Madrid, November 13 (European Press) –

Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, has fined Royal Mail £5.6 million (€6.4 million) for failing to meet postal delivery targets. The fine must be paid to the UK Treasury within two months.

Each year, Royal Mail must deliver 93% of first class mail within one working day and 98.5% of second class mail within three working days, as well as completing 99.9% of delivery routes for each day that delivery is required, excluding the Christmas period .

However, in 2022/23, performance results provided by Royal Mail showed that it delivered only 73.7% of first class mail and 90.7% of second class mail on time, while it completed 89% of first class mail and 90.7% of Second class mail. Postage on time..35% of delivery methods for each day delivery was required.

In this sense, the regulator determined that even after Royal Mail’s performance was adjusted for the impact of the strike, severe weather conditions and the runway closure at Stansted Airport, its first and second class performance remained at just 82% and 95.5% respectively. .

“This means Royal Mail breached its obligations by falling short of its targets by a large and inexplicable margin,” Ofcom said, adding that these delays had caused significant harm to customers without Royal Mail taking adequate steps to try to prevent this.

However, the entity explained that the set of penalties includes a 30% reduction from what would have been imposed to reflect Royal Mail’s admissions of liability and its agreement to resolve the case.