First-class victory over Royal Mail's early collections

The cost- cutting measure has meant many in rural areas have had to post first-class letters early in the morning to ensure delivery the next day.

But the industry regulator Postcomm has ordered that the last collection for most mail boxes should take place after midday.

Royal Mail is thought to have brought forward the times of last collection at 19,000 of its 116,000 post boxes.

Postcomm has demanded a review of the 7,000 boxes which have a final pick-up time before noon, with a view to switching to later collections.

Some 2,320 boxes have last collections at 9am or earlier.

Although the first of the changes are expected within five weeks some boxes will keep their morning cut-off times.

Earlier final collections are the most unpopular of a range of costsaving measures brought in by Royal Mail to fend off commercial rivals.

The policy has also made it much easier to hit targets for delivering first- class mail the next day.

Delivery times are measured from the moment post is picked up and not from when it is put in the box.

So a letter posted first-class on Monday afternoon - after that day's last collection - would meet the next - day target when it arrives on Wednesday morning.

Postcomm, which conducted a poll of Royal Mail customers, stopped short of taking legal action and has given Royal Mail a grace period to review and change collection times.

If it fails to do so, the regulator could seek to rewrite Royal Mail's operating licence to include set times for the last collection of post.

Postcomm chairman Nigel Stapleton said: "Early collections or later deliveries could have adverse effects on mail users' ability to communicate by post and therefore on the future health of the mail market."

Among the earliest last collection times are 7.30am for the village of Perton, near Ledbury in Herefordshire, and 9am for Llandysul in West Wales.

Postwatch, which is the official consumer body for postal services, called on Royal Mail to push back collection times.

A spokesman said: "The evidence is that where collections were brought forward, particularly as early as 9am, customers have been getting a worse sermoon-vice.

"It would have been far better if Royal Mail had consulted with communities before taking this step.

"Our concerns about the earlier collection times, which were raised by consumers, have been borne out by research.

"As far as customers are concerned the later the collection of the last post the better.

"We would hope that Royal Mail responds by moving collection times back to later in the day."

A spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses said its members had been against earlier collection times with many worried that invoices and payments would be held up.

A Royal Mail spokesman said Postcomm's research had painted a generally positive picture of services.

"We welcome the research findings which find high satisfaction levels at the frequency and time of collections and the accessibility of post boxes," he added.

"The majority of customers rated Royal Mail as good value for money.

"We will review the situation on post box collection times. Where we think there is a case where there is a significant amount of mail, we would move to a later collection.

"However, there is a balance to be struck between the cost of making the collections and providing a service.

"For the majority of the early collection boxes, all we collect is fresh air because they are empty."