Overview
- Royal Mail has stopped the final stage of its plan to move second-class letters to alternate weekday deliveries and remove Saturday service, holding back implementation in the last 107 delivery offices until 11 January.
- About 90% of roughly 1,200 delivery offices have already moved to the new model, and the firm says offices on the model now reach about 95% of addresses each day compared with 88% before the change.
- Royal Mail reported a 9% rise in first-class next-day quality but its latest quarter figures still miss Ofcom’s targets, with around 85% of first-class next day and 91.4% of second-class within three working days.
- The company is recruiting 22,000 temporary Christmas staff while proposing about 2,500 head‑office job cuts, and the pause follows pressure from the postal union and public warnings from Prime Minister Andy Burnham about service shortfalls.
- The delay aims to protect festive deliveries, but the January restart will be watched for whether the new model, a £500m improvement plan and owner Daniel Kretinsky’s stewardship together can lift performance to regulator standards.