Royal Mail has published delivery figures for the third quarter of the financial year, showing that it hit the target for Second Class deliveries and fell slightly short for First Class mailings.
The Quality of Service report includes the three months up to 6th December, and shows that 91.1% of First Class post was delivered on the next working day following postage, against a target of 93%. Second Class mail has a target of 98.5% arriving within three days of being sent, a percentage that was achieved in this period.
In the whole financial year, First Class mail has now dropped to an average of 92.4% successful deliveries within the first working day. Second Class post continues to surpass its target, currently on track for 98.8% of all post arriving within three working days.
Sue Whalley, Chief Operations Officer at Royal Mail said: “Our postmen and women work exceptionally hard endeavouring to deliver to these demanding targets, which are some of the highest in Europe. We are disappointed to be behind the First Class target in the period up to early December, which saw severe weather impacts in parts of the UK; while we are pleased to have met the Second Class target. We remain more focussed than ever on continuously improving and maintaining high standards of serviceâ€.
eBay sellers should take note that eBay’s performance metrics track on-time delivery of parcels posted Second Class as being within two working days, against Royal Mail’s own classification of three working days.
Royal Mail are also rolling out 2D barcodes to help track items better, which could result in future Quality of Service reports differentiating between letter and parcel deliveries, which could provide eBay, Amazon and other e-commerce sellers with valuable information when looking for a courier.
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