Yahoo Finance Regulator: Royal Mail Must Improve Services
Royal Mail (LSE: RMG.L - news) has been warned it faces an investigation and possible fines if it does not improve services after missing key performance targets.
The postal regulator Ofcom said the recently-privatised company missed a requirement to deliver 93% of all first class letters on the day after collection, reaching 91.7%.
Ofcom said Royal Mail was also required to meet a target of 91.5% of next-day delivery for first class post in almost all of the UK's geographic postcode areas to provide a good level of service across the UK, and not just in more densely populated areas.
But Royal Mail achieved this level in only 62% of the required postcode areas in the year to March 2013.
Royal Mail met other targets, including a requirement to deliver 98.5% of second class letters within three days of collection.
It either exceeded or narrowly missed targets relating to areas such as special delivery, parcels and delivery to the correct address.
"Ofcom is concerned about Royal Mail's failure to meet certain service targets, and has made clear to the company that it must take all necessary steps to meet these in future," the regulator said.
Its report on the postal sector noted that Royal Mail was now on a firmer financial footing and productivity was gradually improving though competition in delivery from other operators still accounted for less than 1% of UK mail (LSE: UKM.L - news) volumes.
Royal Mail said in a statement: "We were disappointed that we didn't meet all of the regulatory quality-of-service targets we were required to last year. This remains a key area of focus for us.
"Royal Mail has the highest service specification of any major European country and we take our service performance very seriously.
"The quality of our service to customers is key to our success."
Ofcom noted that customer satisfaction with Royal Mail was high though only just over half of the consumers surveyed were satisfied with the cost of postage, with 30% dissatisfied.
Business users, who account for around 90% of all mail sent, were also largely happy with Royal Mail's service with just 7% dissatisfied.
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