Royal Mail has been criticised for its poor performance in Brighton although the company said that the problem was the result of staff going on strike.
The business apologised to customers after revealing just over half of mail sent first class was delivered the next working day in the latest quarter, blaming nine days of “highly damaging” strikes.
The worst-performing regions included Brighton, according to the company, as it insisted that it wanted to improve its quality of service and seek an urgent end to the current strikes.
Just 54.1 per cent of first class mail was delivered the next working day in the three months to Sunday 4 December, Royal Mail said, while three quarters was delivered within two days.
And 78.6 per cent of second class mail was delivered within three working days over the same period.
It falls far short of the 93 per cent target for first class delivery and 98.5 per cent target for second class delivery.
Out of 118 postcode areas, not one achieved its performance target over the period, with Brighton, Perth, Sunderland and south London among the worst regions, with delivery performance well below 50 per cent.
The quality of service was significantly higher in the group’s first quarter, from April to June last year, although still below targets.
The company said that most mail was delivered on time but “nine days of highly damaging industrial action” by Communication Workers Union (CWU) members had significantly lowered its performance as postal staff walked out.
Royal Mail chief operating officer Grant McPherson said: “We are committed to improving our performance and accelerating Royal Mail’s transformation in order to restore service levels while meeting the changing requirements of our customers.
“We’re sorry to any customers who may have been impacted by service levels during this period, which are much lower than we would want as a result of CWU’s ongoing strike action.”
Royal Mail workers have been in a long-running and bitter dispute with bosses over pay and conditions.
The CWU co-ordinated a series of strikes in the months leading up to Christmas which led to thousands of postal workers up and down the country walking out.
An overwhelming majority of workers voted for fresh action in a ballot earlier this month although no new strikes have yet been announced.
The company is tied to a “universal service obligation” which requires it to deliver letters and parcels six days a week at one price to anywhere – to 30 million addresses across the country.
But chief executive Simon Thompson admitted this week that Royal Mail had failed to meet this obligation recently and had to do better.
Sorry but mail is becoming less and less important. Poor service and rising prices will hasten the end of it. The money is in parcels and small packets. If the postman is to avoid going the way of the milkman then change must happen.
RM service in Brighton and Hove has been abysmal for at least ten years, if not more.
I remember the time when there were TWO deliveries per day; 1st post at around 7am, and then 2nd post at around midday.
Now I’m lucky to receive one delivery per week, usually at around 4pm
I’ve got to admit that, unlike the other posters; I’ve never encountered any problems with getting my post delivered every working day in the morning come rain, snow or baking sun.
“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” as the yanks would say…
2nd deliveries were actually scrapped way back in 2004 by Royal mail as part of a cost cutting exercise…
Question: How can you tell when Brighton posties are on strike?
Answer: You can’t. Royal Mail and the PO offer appalling levels of service whether they’re on strike or not.
The sooner we do not have to rely on postmen and the usual UK postal service the better!
Roll on, online and make snail Mail a thing of the past!
I haven’t had any post for over 11 days BN1
I’ve had 6 items of mail forwarded to me from my old address to my new address and not a single one of them has arrived. At all. Do they just dump them in a bin?