Royal Mail will scrap Saturday deliveries for second-class letters from next month as part of a £500m investment plan to improve service performance. The change, which follows a deal with unions, will see second-class post delivered every other weekday instead.
The company has been piloting the new delivery pattern since July and will roll it out nationwide in May. First-class post will continue to be delivered Monday to Saturday, and parcel deliveries remain unchanged at up to seven days a week.
The overhaul comes after Royal Mail was fined a record £21m by Ofcom last October for missing delivery targets. In 2024-25, only 77% of first-class and 92.5% of second-class post arrived on time. The company now aims to hit new targets set by the regulator by next May.
Under the plan, Royal Mail expects to improve first-class next-day delivery to about 85% within nine months, reaching the 90% target within a year. For second-class, it aims for 93% delivered within three days in nine months, hitting 95% by May next year.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) will ballot members on the changes. General secretary Dave Ward welcomed the focus on service improvement but stressed that workers need assurances on resourcing, workloads, and how change will be implemented. He criticised Royal Mail's 'top-down command and control' approach and said the government must continue to hold the company to account.
Royal Mail chief executive Alistair Cochrane said the plans would deliver a 'step change' in performance. The shake-up comes a year after Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský's EP Group completed a £3.6bn takeover of Royal Mail's parent company.
