Royal Mail has been fined £10.5m – almost double the penalty it was hit with last year – for failing to meet its delivery targets.
Regulator Ofcom said the postal operator had blamed its poor performance in the 2023/24 financial year on its challenging financial position, as well as delays to a ballot on a pay deal following strike action by the Communication Workers’ Union.
But it said neither of these were justifiable reasons for its failure to provide the level of service expected of it.
Ofcom’s rules require Royal Mail to deliver at least 93% of first class mail within one working day of collection and 98.5% of second class mail within three working days.
However, it only delivered 74.7% of first class mail on time and 92.7% of second class mail.
The regulator said the company had breached its obligations by failing to provide an acceptable level of service without justification and it had taken insufficient and ineffective steps to try and prevent this failure.
Royal Mail’s owner, International Distribution Service, said it had implemented substantial changes to drive improvements and latest results showed first and second class mail had improved year-on-year.
“Ofcom also note that we are ‘on a recovery path to significantly improve performance,” it said in a statement.
“Delivering great quality of service is extremely important to us and we are making the necessary changes to deliver for our customers.
“However, it is essential that these efforts are backed by urgent reform of the Universal Service, restoring it to a level that meets the needs of today’s postal users, not the needs of customers 20 years ago.”
In November 2023 it was fined £5.6m by Ofcom for its performance in 2022/23.
The fine comes as Czech billionaire and West Ham director Daniel Křetínský continues his attempt to buy the company.
