Royal Mail fined £1.5m for sending first-class post late

ROYAL Mail has been fined £ 1.5million by Ofcom for failing to deliver first-class post on time.

The communications regulator said the postal service missed its target of delivering at least 93 per cent of first-class items within a day of collection.

Only 91.5 per cent of first-class post reached its destination on time in the financial year ending in 2019, according to Ofcom.

However Royal Mail did meet its obligations the following year.

The watchdog said it had to hand out the hefty fine as the company did not provide a satisfactory explanation and ‘ did not take sufficient steps to get back on track during the year’.

Royal Mail said it is ‘disappointed’ with its first-class postal service for 2018-19 and accepted the decision by Ofcom.

In a statement Royal Mail said: ‘We worked hard to restore our service quality in 2019-20 and, were it not for the pandemic and its impact on our business in the latter half of March, we were on course to deliver the requisite first- class regulated quality of service target of 93 per cent.

‘Despite our best endeavours, some areas of the UK experienced a reduction in service levels during March.’

The company was also fined £100,000 for overcharging customers for second-class stamps for a week in March last year.

A 60p price cap was in force until March 31, 2019 but Royal Mail increased the price of second-class stamps to 61p on March 25.

Royal Mail predicts the move saw customers overcharged by roughly £60,000 which it is unable to refund.

‘We accept and note Ofcom’s decision around the 2019 secondclass price cap. We made a mistake,’ the company said.

‘At the time, we sought to put this error right by publicly acknowledging our mistake.’

Gaucho Rasmussen, Ofcom’s director of investigations and enforcement, said: ‘Many people depend on postal services, and our rules are there to ensure they get a good service, at an affordable price. Royal Mail let its customers down and these fines should serve as a reminder that we’ll take action when companies fall short’.

Royal Mail was privatised in 2013 and the Government sold its final shares in the company in 2015.

last month the postal service revealed it would be cutting 2,000 management jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic.

This amounts to nearly 20 per cent of its management roles and is an attempt to save £130million in staffing costs.

Royal Mail also plans to cut its spending over the next two years by £300million as it saw a 31 per cent fall in annual profits.

Royal Mail was previously fined a record £50million by Ofcom in 2018 for ‘pricing discrimination’ against a competitor.

The watchdog concluded the company had abused its dominant market position back in 2014 and had penalised wholesale customers seeking to deliver bulk letters.

Royal Mail lost its appeal against the fine in 2019.