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Our third-class post: Almost half of Britons are unhappy with Royal Mail
Last updated at 21:36pm on 28.07.08
Nearly half of Royal Mail customers believe standards have declined in the past two years. A study commissioned by the industry consumer body Postwatch depicts a service that is failing consumers.
Millions are unhappy they do not get their post until the afternoon. The death of the morning post has come about as Royal Mail cut staff by 48,000 over the past six years and changed shift patterns in an attempt to transfer two-thirds of deliveries until after midday.
Service quality has also been affected by the closure of thousands of post offices, a reduction in the number of post box collections, and the scrapping of Sunday collections.
Postwatch: 'Many deliveries are made later in the day than they used to be'
In May, it was revealed that strike action in 2007 had caused a serious slump in standards and the organisation failed to hit nine of the 12 minimum service targets.
Tens of millions of letters were delayed or lost last year and the reliability of the first-class delivery service fell to 85.2 per cent.
This was below the firm's official target, which requires that at least 93 per cent of first-class mail is delivered by the following day.
Royal Mail also missed delivery targets for second-class post, special delivery and standard parcels, which are cornerstones of the service.
A customer survey for Postwatch conducted by Ipsos MORI, which polled 2,036 adults in early July, found 43 per cent believe Royal Mail's service has declined over the past two years, 42 per cent believed it was the same, while only 14 per cent have seen an improvement.
The findings may increase pressure on Royal Mail chief executive Adam Crozier, who was paid £3.04million for 2007-08 and is the country's highest paid civil servant.
Postwatch chairman Millie Banerjee said it was 'not surprising' the vast majority of customers believed Royal Mail's performance had got worse or stood still in the past two years.
She said it was important that customer perception was dealt with alongside performance.
'Adam Crozier has acknowledged that Royal Mail needs to become more customer-focused to show it really does care about every item of mail arriving safely and on time,' she said.
Mr Crozier's pay package has been condemned by union leaders. General Secretary of the Communications Workers' Union, Billy Hayes, said: 'Management are clearly being rewarded for failure.'
However, Royal Mail's chairman, Alan Leighton, said Mr Crozier and his team 'has consistently exceeded expectations'.
The CWU said the service is suffering because rivals had taken lucrative commercial contracts.
Mr Hayes added: 'Royal Mail is not being innovative in bringing new products forwards and is being forced to compete on price instead of products and services.'
Royal Mail said the reliability of first-class mail had improved over a two-year period.
A spokesman added that although last year's strike had damaged customer service, 'we are working hard to deliver the high quality our customers deserve'.
He defended later deliveries, saying: 'Royal Mail remains committed to delivering mail to urban areas by around 2pm and around 3pm for rural areas.'
Reader views (6)
Well I'm really annoyed with the post office, as I'm an educated black British and lived in England all my life. I took a Royal Mail test and I sailed through the papers except 1 the last paper, I cant recall what it was about but there were a few of us (mainly White British and black British) that had top marks in maths, and other test papers except the last one, and the only two people in the group to pass were 2 Asian men who could not speak English!? I'll never forget that! The post man who delivers the mail at work sits in his van and smokes for most of the morning then starts to deliver in the afternoon.
- Miss P, Middlesex
So why does Mr Crozier keep on getting bumper bonuses?
- Fly, london
I miss Royal Mail. "Millions are unhappy they do not get their post until the afternoon" - Seriously, there are bigger things to worry about. Compared to the service here in Argentina (50% chance of something arriving...ever!) the Royal Mail is doing an excellent job.
- Paul Mowson, Buenos Aires, Argentina
We have been complaining to the Royal Mail for over a year about letters going missing and us receiving letters for just about anyone in the immediate are who lives at a No 26 in their particular street (our house number). The problem got better for a while - they claimed they had put a "watch" on our mail - but now another important letter from our bank has failed to appear (the bank has confirmed sending it). The best thing was the compensation the RM sent us recently - a book of first class stamps - words fail me.
- Nigel, London
I am unhappy with coming home from work most evenings and having to redeliver half the street's mail because the lazy blighter has chucked five doors worth of mail through my letterbox. Up to about five years ago I had the same postie, said good morning to him on way to work, Christmas box for him, the binmen and the recycling person. Now you never see them and when you do it's a different person every time; and don't bother wishing them a 'good afternoon' because they won't understand you.
- Squiz, Islington
"Nearly half of Royal Mail customers believe standards have declined in the past two years"
Really? I think it's still as shoddy as it's been since the 80's, on at least 3 occasions every year I have items go "missing" and occasionally have parcels delivered which have been opened and resealed with many of the original contents missing. The sooner it's privatised the better.
- Nick Letters, London
