'Worst ever' postal service

The postal service has slumped to its worst ever performance.

Official figures show as many as one in six first class letters is now arriving late.

Royal Mail admitted today that it has again failed to hit a single one of its 15 targets for delivery of the post.

The latest alarming deterioration in the quality of Britain's post was revealed this morning in figures for the April to June quarter.

This was when the post was reduced to chaos in much of the country by a controversial reform programme that included the phasing out of the second delivery. The figures show that across Britain, only 88.3 per cent of first class letters arrived the next day, compared with a minimum target of 92.5 per cent. In May it fell to a low of 87.2 per cent.

However, in the worst affected areas of the country - including London - the next-day delivery slumped to unprecedented lows of just above 80 per cent.

The worst-performing area in London were the South-East post codes with delivery at 85 per cent and those in north London, which were only marginally better.

Royal Mail insisted that the three months covered by today's figures represented the low point and that services had been improving over the summer.

Adam Crozier, chief executive of Royal Mail, who was paid a £300,000 bonus on top of his £500,000 basic salary earlier this year, said there was "real evidence" that the service was getting better.

Mr Crozier said the organisation was now making progress, adding that 95 per cent of the operational changes had now been made. "Royal Mail is now operating profitably after launching its renewal plan two-andahalf years ago when the company was losing more than £1million every working day."

Mr Crozier said the Royal Mail's performance this spring had not been good enough and he again apologised to customers.

"Clearly there were some problems in the spring but the service has improved, month-on-month, since May and we are now approaching our target level for first class mail."

He said that in July next day deliveries in July were back above 90 per cent and preliminary figures for August show the performance at around 92 per cent.

The company said that the service dipped in the spring while the " massive modernisation programme" in the letters business was introduced across the country.

"The changes were not optional but are essential to improve efficiency and ensure Royal Mail can compete profitably with a high quality service against growing competition in mail market," said Mr Crozier.

The shocking results will prompt new calls from consumer groups for the Royal Mail to be stripped of its monopoly.

In May this year, when the Royal Mail missed all of its service targets for the first time in its history, the watchdog Postwatch said Britain's postal service, once the envy of the world, had suffered a devastating "annus horribilis" when the price of stamps had gone up but the quality of service had sunk to a new low.

At the time, Postwatch chairman Peter Carr said: "It has now reached the bottom and there are no longer any more targets to miss."

But the new figures show Royal Mail has plumbed new depths.

The company faces the possibility of a huge fine from the regulator for its poor performance, on top of a compensation-bill which could run into tens of millions. The Royal Mail said that it is paying just over £50 million in compensation for late post in the last financial year to the end of March.

This is made up of £35 million to business customers under its new bulk mail compensation scheme and £16.5 million to individuals who lost out as a result of delayed deliveries.

The figures are worse than last year despite a pledge to improve. In the same three months last year, Royal Mail managed to deliver 92.3 per cent of first-class mail on time.

The worst area of the country for letter delivery in July was Glasgow, where 80 per cent of first class letters arrived on time.