UPDATE: Royal Mail has just announced significant postal delays affecting multiple regions in Scotland as the Christmas season approaches. The delivery giant is grappling with severe operational challenges, including high levels of sickness absence and ongoing resourcing issues.
Affected areas include Glasgow, Dundee, and Paisley, along with numerous towns and villages in Aberdeenshire, Fife, Inverclyde, Renfrewshire, and South Lanarkshire. Royal Mail is rotating deliveries to mitigate the impact on customers, but the disruption comes at a critical time as holiday mail volumes surge.
“We know how important letters and parcels are, especially in the run-up to Christmas,”
a Royal Mail spokesperson said. The company emphasized that this period is their busiest, with mail volumes more than doubling. Despite the challenges, they claim that the vast majority of items continue to be delivered on time.
To address the ongoing delays, Royal Mail has announced plans to hire approximately 20,000 extra workers to assist with the transportation, sorting, and delivery of mail during the festive season. This comes as a response to recent reports indicating that less than 75% of first-class mail was delivered on time in recent months, with only 73.4% delivered the next working day between June 20 and September 28. Additionally, 90.4% of second-class mail met the three-working-day target.
Royal Mail’s mounting woes are compounded by its recent £21 million fine from the regulator Ofcom for failing to meet mail delivery targets during the 2024-25 financial year. An Ofcom spokesperson stated, “In recent years, we’ve fined Royal Mail £37 million for its poor letter delivery performance, and we’ll continue to hold the company to account.”
The regulator has modernized the obligations imposed on Royal Mail to ensure a more sustainable and reliable service, compelling the company to invest in improving delivery performance. Royal Mail must now implement these changes effectively to regain customer trust.
As the festive rush intensifies, customers are urged to plan ahead and expect potential delays. The company reassures that they are committed to resolving issues as swiftly as possible to maintain service levels. With Christmas just around the corner, the urgency for timely deliveries has never been greater.
Stay tuned for further updates as Royal Mail works to alleviate these delays and improve their service during this crucial season.
