Survey shows how bad post really is

The chaotic state of London's postal service is exposed today in a survey that shows more than one in five first-class letters arrive late.

An investigation by the Evening Standard found the Royal Mail has fallen more than 10 per cent below its own targets for delivery of first-class post.

Its performance makes a mockery of the postal service's recent demand to charge small businesses and households £14 a week if they wish to receive their post before 9am. The survey shows those who pay the premium to receive urgent post first thing in the morning will not receive 20 per cent of their mail for a further 24 hours.

Kay Dixon, London chairman of the consumer group Postwatch, said the results were unacceptable.

"London is consistently underperforming the rest of the country," she said.

"Consignia claims that when the new first post delivery system is introduced, it will make the service much better. But what they cannot say is how much. And until then, people will have to pay £14 to receive only a proportion of their post by the next morning."

Evening Standard sent 200 first-class letters from 10 different areas of the capital to a range of small businesses and residential addresses. But by the next morning, only 77

per cent had arrived - far below the Post Office's own target of 92.5 per cent next-day delivery.

The success rate is particularly bad considering August is one of the quietest times of year for the Royal Mail, which should make it easier to ensure first-class post arrives on time.

The survey found that Finsbury fared the worst, receiving none of the letters. They were later found at the wrong addresses.

Meanwhile, the City areas received just six out of their 10 letters the next day. Bow in east London, Hendon in north London and Tottenham received only eight letters by the morning. No addresses in the survey received all of their mail by the next day.

The investigation comes as a controversial new delivery system is trialled in areas around Britain. This month, Royal Mail will only deliver letters before 9am to large companies and properties who receive more than 20 letters a day. Smaller companies and households wishing to receive post before midday will have to pay £14. However, one trial in Plymouth has had just one resident out of 36,000 sign up for the deal.

The poor performance revealed in the Standard investigation raises questions over why small businesses should pay the £14 fee to receive their post in the morning when so much will not arrive until the next day anyway.

A spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses said the delivery rates proved small businesses should not have to pay the fee. He said: "The Royal Mail is clearly failing all of its targets. The reason we are so concerned about changes to delivery is that it is vital that small businesses receive post early in order to get cheques in the post that they urgently need to cash at the bank. They also need to receive contracts and commissions.

"The £14-a-week fee is a substantial cost to small businesses and we do not feel they should have to pay to guarantee their post arrives early. The fact they do not get much for their money is not acceptable."