Royal Mail brings forward last posting dates for Christmas

Royal Mail has brought its final posting dates for Christmas forward by about a week amid strike action by its workers, with the regulator telling it to stop blaming the pandemic for failing to make deliveries on time.

The company, which is facing six days of strikes this month running up until Christmas Eve, has advised the public to send their cards and presents even earlier than usual if they want them to arrive in time.

The final date for second class deliveries is now 12 December, with the last date for first class post now 16 December. Delivery deadlines to international destinations have also been brought forward, with the last being to Belgium, France and Luxembourg on 12 December. The final posting date of any kind before Christmas is special delivery, which is guaranteed up to 21 December.

Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents more than 115,000 postal workers, have already held 12 days of strike action in an increasingly bitter and protracted dispute with management over pay and conditions, and further stoppages are planned on 9, 11, 14, 15, 23 and 24 December.

“The CWU is striking at our busiest time, holding Christmas to ransom for our customers, businesses and families across the country,” said Nick Landon, the chief commercial officer at Royal Mail. “We ask our customers to post early for Christmas to help us deliver Christmas.”

Last week the union rejected a pay deal that Royal Mail said was its final offer. The company will have had 18 days of strikes this year if all the planned action takes place. It has said the eight days of strikes up until 16 November alone cost it £100m.

Yesterday the postal regulator, Ofcom, said Royal Mail could not keep blaming the Covid-19 pandemic for failing to make deliveries on time as its performance was falling “well short of where it should be”.

Ofcom said an investigation found the company had not met several annual delivery targets, including only 82% of first class mail making it to recipients within one working day of collection in the year to the end of March, against a regulatory target of 93%.

Royal Mail blamed the pandemic for failing to hit targets, citing staff absence, particularly during the Omicron wave last Christmas, with social distancing and “unusually high parcel volumes and sizes” prolonging the delivery process.

“Looking back at last year, Covid19 was clearly still having a significant impact on Royal Mail’s operations,” said Lindsey Fussell, Ofcom’s group director for networks and communications. “However, the company’s had plenty of time to learn lessons from the pandemic and cannot continue to use it as an excuse.

“We’re concerned by Royal Mail’s performance so far this year, which is falling well short of where it should be. It must do everything it can to bring service levels back up, and we’ll be keeping a close eye on it throughout the year.”

Ofcom’s report found while more than 80% of households said they were satisfied with Royal Mail, 31% said they had experienced delayed post in the past year, up from 23% before the pandemic. A Royal Mail spokesperson apologised for the drop in service standards but pointed out that the company was responsible for delivering millions of Covid-19 test kits via 35,000 priority postboxes.

“We apologise to all customers who were impacted by service levels during this time,” the spokesperson said. “We are pleased Ofcom also took into account the significant, pervasive and unprecedented impact of the pandemic on our operation as we worked hard to keep the country connected. Our focus remains to restore our service to the high standards our customers expect.”