Royal Mail успешно восстанавливается после рождественского периода, но субботняя почта все еще находится под угрозой убытков

Royal Mail, the 507-year-old delivery firm, has declared this past Christmas as its best Christmas in four years. The company aimed to make up for the chaos that occurred in 2022 due to strike action by the Communication Workers Union. This year, over 99% of first and second-class items sent by the recommended postal dates arrived in time for Christmas, a significant improvement from the previous year.

However, despite this success, Royal Mail's parent company, International Distributions Services IDS, continues to face challenges. Analysts predict that IDS is heading towards an annual loss of over £300 million, which would essentially wipe out the profits from its overseas arm, GLS. The CEO of IDS, Martin Seidenberg, has called on industry regulator Ofcom to take urgent action regarding the company's legal obligation to deliver letters six days a week.

Seidenberg argues that the current arrangement is not sustainable, raising concerns that Saturday post deliveries may be discontinued. Royal Mail reported a 21% increase in the number of parcels delivered through its network in the final three months of 2023, as customers returned after the strikes. Quarterly revenues also rose by 13.1% to £2.3 billion, with a significant portion of this increase attributed to stamp price hikes over the past 18 months.

Including GLS, IDS's revenues reached £3.6 billion for the three months ending in December, a 9.8% increase compared to the previous year. Seidenberg expressed satisfaction with these results, highlighting a marked improvement for Royal Mail during the festive period and emphasizing the need to build on this momentum. As a result, shares in the company rose by 2.1%. Despite these positive delivery rates, Royal Mail has faced criticism in recent years for consistently missing its targets and causing delays in mail delivery.

Detailed data on the Christmas period is yet to be published, but figures from the previous quarter showed that only 74% of first-class post arrived on time, well below the target of 93%. Second-class post also fell short, with only 91.3% of deliveries on time compared to the target of 98.5%. As a consequence, Royal Mail was fined £5.6 million by Ofcom in November for failing to meet its targets. Royal Mail has argued that the legal requirement to deliver letters six days a week, known as the Universal Service Obligation USO, is hindering the company's ability to improve its business and compete with rivals like Amazon and Evri.

Seidenberg stated that maintaining a delivery network designed for 20 billion letters when they now only deliver 7 billion is not sustainable. In a letter to the chairman of the House of Commons business and trade committee, Seidenberg suggested that Royal Mail may need to increase prices further or receive a taxpayer bailout to continue operating in its current form. However, campaigners and ministers have resisted any proposals to reduce the service, expressing concerns that it would negatively impact the quality of the service.

As Ofcom prepares to publish options for the future of the USO, the Royal Mail CEO expects these options to be released soon.