Royal Mail is pushing back the final stage of its major restructuring until January following agreement with the postal workers' union, the Communications Workers Union. The delay will allow the business to concentrate resources on the busy Christmas period rather than complete a full rollout across all delivery sites before the end of the year. The changes involve moving second-class letters to alternate weekday deliveries, with Saturday services removed entirely.
To date, the updated delivery model has been introduced in nearly 1,100 of Royal Mail's 1,200 delivery locations, with a further 15 scheduled by 2 November. The final 107 offices will now implement the changes on 11 January. Alistair Cochrane, chief executive of Royal Mail, said the delay represented a pragmatic approach to maintain progress on what he described as one of the biggest operational changes in the organisation's history while ensuring a successful Christmas for customers.
The postponement follows mounting pressure on Royal Mail over persistent service failures. Prime Minister Andy Burnham called on the provider last week to raise its standards, warning the government might consider further action if improvements do not materialise quickly. He described the service as unacceptable. The Communications Workers Union has also demanded an emergency summit, claiming the organisation was on the brink of collapse.
Royal Mail's performance remains a concern despite recent improvements. In the first quarter of the year, the service delivered 85 per cent of first-class mail the next day and 91.4 per cent of second-class mail within three working days. Ofcom's revised targets require 90 per cent of first-class mail and 95 per cent of second-class mail to arrive on time. However, Cochrane highlighted that first-class quality of service has improved by 9 per cent since the new model was deployed, and offices operating under it are delivering to around 95 per cent of addresses daily on average, compared with 88 per cent before the rollout began.
Royal Mail's parent company, International Distribution Services, was acquired last year by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky. The group published an improvement plan in the spring committing to invest £500 million in quality of service over five years. Earlier this month, Royal Mail announced it would cut 2,500 head office and support jobs, representing about 2 per cent of its overall workforce, though frontline postal workers are not affected. The service is hiring 22,000 temporary workers for the Christmas period to handle additional festive mail volumes.