Royal Mail rules out five-day deliveries

Royal Mail has told Postcomm it does not want to cut the number of deliveries from six days a week to five, a change to the universal service obligation mooted by the postal regulator on Monday.

Sarah Chambers, Postcomm chief executive, told a conference in London that changes to delivery requirements imposed on Royal Mail were on the agenda as part of the regulator’s broad-ranging review of the future of regulation after 2010.

The UK rules demanding deliveries to the front door six days a week provided more of a “Rolls-Royce” universal service than other European countries, she said. The standard in continental Europe was five days of deliveries, usually to the entrance to the property or block of flats.

Royal Mail has asked the regulator to reduce the scope of the universal service obligation, from most letters and packages to the 10 per cent that carry a stamp. But on Tuesday Adam Crozier, chief executive, wrote to Postcomm to make clear it had never asked for a reduction in deliveries, nor would it want to reduce them.

“In the communications market, what sets us apart is we deliver six days a week to the front door of more than 27m addresses,” said Royal Mail.

“We also deliver almost all the first-class mail next day. These characteristics set us apart from other providers.”

Royal Mail also expressed surprise that Postcomm was considering such moves, since the Postal Services Act imposed a duty on the regulator to ensure delivery to homes and workplaces six days a week.

Postcomm said it had made no proposal to cut the number of deliveries, and confirmed Royal Mail had not made one either. It also said there would be no recommendation to do so when it published its initial findings on the future of regulation later this summer.

But the review was examining trade-offs between cost and service that customers would want after 2010, and the number of deliveries was one of many questions asked in its consultation paper.

“We will encourage continued debate on those trade-offs,” it said.