Royal Mail Quality of Service 2020-21

[POSTMAN]

https://www.royalmailgroup.com/en/press ... e-2020-21/

A Year of Unprecedented Challenges

Royal Mail notes that the full year outcome on Quality of Service for First and Second Class mail was significantly impacted by the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

From the start of the crisis, the Government assigned Royal Mail key worker status so we could keep the UK connected by collecting, processing and delivering the mail across three national lockdowns.

Early in the COVID-19 crisis, Ofcom recognised that the pandemic qualified as an emergency situation under the Postal Services Act 2011. This meant that it would not always be possible for us to meet our regulatory obligations, which included our Quality of Service targets. Ofcom also said it would take a pragmatic approach to enforcement during this time.

Despite ongoing social distancing measures, Royal Mail’s service levels continue to improve this year as we continue to take even more action to improve Quality of Service. As of the last week of April, we were delivering more than 88 per cent of First Class mail the next working day and more than 97 per cent of Second Class mail within three working days.

Royal Mail has worked with the Government to prioritise the delivery of test kits, Personal Protective Equipment and vaccination letters in the crucial fight against COVID-19. As part of the National Testing Programme, we have been regularly exceeding our Government appointed Quality of Service levels for test kits (both deliveries and returns to laboratories) achieving next working day delivery levels in excess of 98% since April 2020.

The health and safety of our colleagues and customers has been our number one priority

Throughout the pandemic, Royal Mail has prioritised the health and safety of its people and its customers by making changes to its operation that upheld social distancing. The introduction of necessary social distancing measures - combined with increased COVID-related staff absences and unprecedented parcel volumes during successive lockdowns - inevitably had a detrimental impact on performance. Safety measures included the need to move from two colleagues per delivery van to one person per delivery van as well as ensuring a minimum of two metres between sorting stations in delivery offices and between colleagues in mail centres, as well as staggering shift start times.

Some Delivery Offices and Mail Centres in areas most affected by the pandemic experienced very high levels of COVID-related absences including illness, shielding and self isolation. We made a series of changes such as increasing overtime and hiring temporary staff and additional vehicles to keep delivering mail. In areas particularly heavily impacted we alternated the routes our postmen and women served each day in an attempt to ensure customers received deliveries at least every other day. This supplemented the investment we made across our network to manage these unprecedented challenges.

Throughout this period, parcel volumes grew at an unprecedented rate increasing by around a third year on year.

Keeping the UK Connected

As a result of these exceptional challenges, Royal Mail delivered 74.7 per cent of First Class mail the next working day (and 92% of First Class mail was delivered within two days of being posted). We delivered 93.7 per cent of Second Class mail within three working days for the financial year 2020-21.

The Company kept mail moving throughout the country despite the pandemic and three national lockdowns.

Achim Dunnwald, Chief Operating Officer, said: “The pandemic led to unprecedented pressures on our network. Given the exceptional volumes we have experienced during lockdown, and the ongoing impact of COVID-related staff absences, we recognise that at times our service has not always been as we would have wished. However we would like to pay tribute to the extraordinary job our people have done in keeping the UK connected through three national lockdowns. Whilst it is clear that social distancing requirements and higher than usual absences will be impacting our operation for some time, we are resolutely focused on delivering pre-COVID-19 quality in a COVID-19 world as soon as we can.”


KEY POINTS


• Royal Mail notes that the full year outcome on Quality of Service for First and Second Class mail was significantly impacted by the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, Royal Mail prioritised the health and safety of its people and its customers

• Necessary social distancing measures - combined with increased COVID-related staff absences and unprecedented parcel volumes inevitably impacted performance

• Ofcom recognised that the COVID-19 pandemic qualified as an emergency situation and said it would take a pragmatic approach to enforcement during this time

• As a result of these exceptional challenges, Royal Mail delivered 74.7 per cent of First Class mail the next working day (and 92% of First Class mail was delivered within two days of being posted) for the financial year 2020-21

• Royal Mail delivered 93.7 per cent of Second Class mail within three working days for the financial year 2020-21

• As part of the National Testing Programme, we have been achieving in excess of 98% of next working day deliveries for test kits since April 2020

• We are focussed on improving quality for our customers. Royal Mail’s service levels continue to improve this year as COVID-related absence levels begin to stabilise and we take further action

• As of the last week of April we were delivering more than 88 per cent of First Class mail the next working day and more than 97 per cent of Second Class mail within three working days.

[POSTMAN]

All,

Today, we have released our Quality of Service figures for the year 2020-21. Our Quality of Service for First and Second Class mail was significantly impacted by the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. We had to prioritise the safety of our people and our customers, and we did that.

From the start of the crisis, the Government assigned our people key worker status so we could keep the UK connected by collecting, processing and delivering the mail across three national lockdowns.

We delivered 74.7 per cent of First Class mail the next working day (and 92% of First Class mail was delivered within two days of being posted). We delivered 93.7 per cent of Second Class mail within three working days for the financial year 2020-21.

We kept mail moving throughout the country despite the pandemic and three national lockdowns. I want to thank everyone for the extraordinary job you did during these most challenging times.

Now, we need to focus on delivering pre-Covid quality in a Covid world, and we need to do that as quickly as possible. We are already making good progress. As of the last week of April, we were delivering more than 88 per cent of First Class mail the next working day and more than 97 per cent of Second Class mail within three working days. And, as part of the National Testing Programme, we have been achieving in excess of 98% of next working day deliveries for test kits since April 2020.

But we all have a part to play in delivering for all our customers – keeping and growing their trust in us. We must and can provide our service in a great way – everywhere and every day. I thank you for your continued commitment to our business and our customers.

Achim Dünnwald
Chief operating officer

[Ad_bee]

The gulf between the press-release and the reality is astounding.

During the Cold War we would laugh at the hilarious Soviet press-leases such as "tractor production is up".

We shouldn't have laughed....Karma dontyaknow!

[hans solo]

the real failure in qos comes from local mgmt using covid as an excuse to lapse duties for financial savings

[paulus103]

From working in Mail Centres there were days that we couldn't get mail in or out of the building as we were completely full - lorries turned away
For a few days, I stored mail in the shift managers office while waiting for despatch :)
That seemed to focus the mind when they arrived to see half their large office filled with Yorks.

Use your initiative they said - we have no space in the building... :)

But seriously there were days when too much mail was coming in and the mail centre just got log-jammed and we were just stuck as couldn't get the mail out and all combined with no staff.

I can't imagine how Delivery offices must have coped.

Of course, senior management was working from home and only turned up when the worst was over.