Quality of Service

We exceeded our regulatory Quality of Service target for Second Class mail in the 2019-20 financial year. But we missed our target for First Class mail.

• We delivered 92.6 per cent of First Class mail the next working day, against a target of 93 per cent.
• We delivered 98.8 per cent of Second Class mail within three working days against a target of 98.5 per cent.

Impact of coronavirus

Up until 15 March, we were meeting our First Class target with a performance of 93.0 per cent. We believe that we would have achieved our First Class target if our performance was adjusted to take into account the impact of coronavirus. We have asked Ofcom to take these issues into consideration.

• During the fourth quarter, our First Class performance was 93.2 per cent excluding the impact of coronavirus, but 91.6 per cent including it.
• 105 of our 118 postcode areas met or exceeded their targets over the year. We believe all 118 were within the target range when we exclude the impact of coronavirus.

Chief operating officer, Achim Dünnwald, said: ‘We are disappointed that we missed our annual regulatory First Class target. This was the result of the coronavirus crisis that took a heavy toll on our performance during the year.

‘Royal Mail has one of the highest Quality of Service specifications of any major European country and our postmen and women work extremely hard to deliver demanding targets.’

Here are our top performing postcode areas for First Class mail:

• CA Carlisle                        95.7
• PR Preston                        94.9
• HG Harrogate                   94.8
• DY Dudley                         94.8
• BR Bromley                      94.5
• DG Dumfries                    94.4
• BH Bournemouth            94.3
• SL Slough                          94.2
• BL Bolton                          94.2
• S Sheffield                        94.2
• WC West Central            94.2

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