Royal Mail has been warned by regulator Ofcom that it cannot continue to blame COVID-19 for poor delivery performance, after the pandemic caused it to miss its targets last year.
But the postal delivery service, which is owned by International Distributions Services PLC (LSE:IDS), also failed to meet targets in the early part of this year, Ofcom noted. It said Covid could not be used as an excuse anymore and that Royal Mail should have learnt lessons from the pandemic.
Having concluded its investigation into the company's delivery performance, Ofcom said Royal Mail missed a number of its regulatory delivery targets in the year from April 2021 to March 2022.
For example, only 82% of First Class mail was delivered within one day of collection, below the 93% target, while 95.6% of Second Class mail was delivered within three days against a target of 98.5%.
Ofcom said it accepted that Covid had "a significant, pervasive and unprecedented impact" on Royal Mail’s operations in 2021-22, such as increased staff absences, unusually high parcel volumes and problems related to social distancing rules.
As a result, the regulator said it was not appropriate to find Royal Mail in breach of its regulatory obligations for 2021-22.
But with conditions now broadly back at pre-pandemic trends, the regulator said it does not expect Covid to have a continuing, significant impact on Royal Mail’s service levels.
Royal Mail has committed to restoring quality of service as quickly as possible, Ofcom said.
"Looking back at last year, COVID-19 was clearly still having a significant impact on Royal Mail’s operations. However, the company’s had plenty of time to learn lessons from the pandemic, and cannot continue to use it as an excuse," commented Lindsey Fussell, Ofcom's director for Networks and Communications in a statement.
"We’re concerned by Royal Mail’s performance so far this year, which is falling well short of where it should be. It must do everything it can to bring service levels back up, and we’ll be keeping a close eye on it throughout the year."
Royal Mail is embroiled in a row with the Communication Workers Union over pay, jobs and conditions, with staff having launched a series of strikes after rejecting pay offers that were below inflation.