Royal Mail could be given the green light to scrap Saturday deliveries as part of an Ofcom review into how the UK’s postal service may need to be updated.
Royal Mail currently has a Universal Service Obligation, obliging it to deliver to UK addresses six days a week for the price of a stamp. Scrapping this to five is among the options to be presented by Ofcom.
The regulator is due to publish its report next week on how Royal Mail can “evolve to more closely meet consumer needs”.
Sky News has reported that the review will also recommend modifying first- and second-class delivery targets, moving to alternate-day deliveries and allowing Royal Mail to impose higher stamp prices.
While the Ofcom report is likely to recommend these steps, a spokesperson for the watchdog said “it would ultimately be for the government and Parliament to determine whether any changes are needed to the minimum requirements of the universal service”.
Royal Mail made a £319m loss in the first half of this financial year and has been calling for urgent reform since 2020.
Last Thursday, Martin Seidenberg, chief executive of Royal Mail owner International Distributions Services said the postal service “is simply not sustainable to maintain a delivery network built for 20 billion letters when we are only delivering 7 billion”.
A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson told the BBC there were “no current plans to change the statutory minimum requirements” set out in the Postal Services Act 2011, but the government would “carefully consider any advice that Ofcom puts forward”.
Any change in Royal Mail deliveries could affect retailers who use the service to deliver online purchases to customers.
The Greeting Card Association has criticised the planned changes, saying its membership: “depends on a postal service that remains reliable, national and affordable - commitments that can’t be diluted”.
No comments yet