A new second-class service that has whiff of third class

Do you use second-class stamps? You’re going to have to put up with a distinctly second-class service in future really, more like third.

- JAMES MOORE

The future of the Royal Mail's universal service obligation (USO) is one of those things that feels like it has been talked about, discussed, debated – and complained about, in the case of the Daily Mail – forever.

We’ve been sending fewer letters, and this has made it increasingly expensive to provide. Hence the Mail’’s longstanding complaints.

But consumers have also been complaining because of the company’s performance when it comes to meeting its obligations. Those complaints are justified given the number of times the group has failed to hit the (perfectly reasonable) targets set for it by its regulator, Ofcom.

Ofcom’s solution to these problems? Relieve the Royal Mail of its obligation to deliver six days a week. In future the secondclass post will only arrive every other day and not on Saturdays.

The savings the company is expected to reap from this concession are colossal, potentially exceeding £400m annually “with successful implementation”. Given the company’s history, that’s not a gimme.

Ofcom tells us that “this could enable it to improve reliability and redeploy existing resources to growth areas such as parcels”.