Ofcom paves way for Royal Mail to cut number of days post delivered

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The UK’s communications watchdog has outlined two choices for modifications to letter deliveries as half of a assessment anticipated to save the firm a whole bunch of tens of millions of kilos.

Ofcom mentioned the 2 “primary options” may embrace letters being delivered to households and companies 5 and even 3 times per week, or the decelerate of deliveries throughout three or extra days.

The first transfer may save Royal Mail between £100m and £650m and the second between £150m and £650m, in accordance to the regulator.

It comes after Downing Street, which might have to approve the transfer, appeared to rule out the corporate being allowed to scrap Saturday deliveries.

But Ofcom chief government Dame Melanie Dawes mentioned that modifications to the postal system might be required because the number of letters being despatched every year has halved since 2011, whereas persons are getting many extra parcels than they used to.

Currently, Royal Mail has an obligation to ship letters six days per week to all 32 million addresses within the UK for the worth of a stamp, irrespective of the place the letters are going.

Royal Mail, which recorded a £419 million loss in its earlier monetary yr, mentioned the present service requirement is “simply not sustainable”.

Dame Melanie mentioned: “Postal workers are part of the fabric of our society and are critical to communities up and down the country. But we’re sending half as many letters as we did in 2011, and receiving many more parcels.

“The universal service hasn’t changed since then, it’s getting out of date and will become unsustainable if we don’t take action.

“So we’ve set out options for reform so there can be a national discussion about the future of universal post. In the meantime, we’re making sure prices will remain affordable by capping the price of second class stamps.”

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman mentioned: “Obviously Ofcom has a role here and is reviewing the future of Royal Mail.

“But the Prime Minister’s strong view is that Saturday deliveries provide flexibility and convenience that are important for businesses and particularly publishers and the Prime Minister would not countenance seeing Saturday deliveries scrapped.

“So I think we’ll see exactly what the outcomes are. But given the importance of these deliveries, particularly to businesses, it’s not something we would countenance.”