Royal Mail misses every performance target

The Royal Mail is paying a record £50 million in compensation for late delivery of post, it was revealed today.

The Royal Mail is paying a record £50 million in compensation for late delivery of post, it was revealed today.

The news came as new figures showed that the organisation missed all of its targets in the first quarter of the financial year.

The compensation, to business and individual customers, followed disruption to the service last year when deliveries were hit by industrial action.

The Royal Mail insisted today that reliability was improving and said more than nine out of ten first class letters were arriving the day after being posted.

But the new figures showed that just 88.3 per cent of first class letters were delivered on time between April and June against a target of 92.5 per cent.

The Royal Mail missed all 15 of its targets during the three months, according to the figures.

Changes to single delivery of mail were blamed by managers with a low point of 87.2% of first class mail arriving on time in May.

Adam Crozier, chief executive of the Royal Mail, who took personal day-to-day control of the letters business in May, said there was "real evidence" that the service was getting better.

"Clearly there were some problems in the spring but the service has improved, month-on-month, since May and we are now approaching our target level for first class mail."

The company said that the service dipped in the spring while the "massive modernisation programme" in the letters business was introduced across the country.

"The changes were not optional but are essential to improve efficiency and ensure Royal Mail can compete profitably with a high quality service against growing competition in mail market," said Mr Crozier.