Strikers for blamed for worst postal deliveries in five years

Published on Friday 29 February 2008 21:45

POST deliveries in Scotland have fallen to their worst level in five years as strike-hit Royal Mail admitted it failed to ensure next-day delivery on almost one in five first-class items.

It delivered 83 per cent of first-class packages on time during the first nine months of 2007-8 – missing its target by 10 per cent. Its performance worsened over Christmas, when almost half of first-class post missed the next-day target.

Watchdogs said this year could be "pivotal in the decline of the Royal Mail unless it can reinvent itself and show it cares about its customers".

The company was hit by severe industrial action last year, which saw official and wildcat strikes bring deliveries to a halt.

Postal workers were protesting over pay, jobs and pensions, with union demands including reform of the company's pension scheme, a pay rise this year of about 2.5 per cent and changes to long-standing working practices.

Alan Alexander, chairman of the consumer watchdog Postwatch Scotland, said: "Royal Mail is having a difficult year. It has let customers down and driven many of them into using alternative means of communicating. It is doubtful that those customers who moved away from mail will return.

"Even after the strike was over, the company failed to meet customer expectations at Christmas. This is the busiest posting time, and with more and more deliveries from internet shopping, an opportunity to rebuild a tarnished brand was squandered."

Edinburgh, Falkirk and Dundee were among the 20 worst-performing postal areas in Britain, with 80.2, 80.5 and 78.5 per cent of first-class mail being delivered the next day. Only Inverness made it into Britain's top ten, with a success rate of 86.8 per cent – still well short of the 93 per cent target.

Blaming the industrial action , Royal Mail admitted the figures were in stark contrast to the "target-beating performance being delivered across almost every aspect of Royal Mail's service before last year's strike".

Ninian Wilson, Royal Mail's operations director, said, however, that it expected figures to be back on track next year. "With the strike behind us and a wide-ranging agreement on modernisation in place, we are focused on delivering, once again, consistent, high-quality service to all our customers."

Stuart Mackinnon, deputy spokesman for the Federation of Small Businesses in Scotland, said the figures were bad news for firms. "Obviously, any delay is bad for small companies that rely on the Royal Mail. A delay of one or two days can have a serious effect on cash flow. If payments from contractors are late or cheques don't arrive at banks on time, it can result in companies incurring charges."