Royal Mail is potentially facing another grilling over its performance after MPs claimed it is still failing to meet its basic delivery obligations.
After a dismal record last year that saw it fined £5.6m by regulator Ofcom, social media sites are again filled with complaints of late deliveries and gifts, letters and cards especially not arriving.
Reports last week by undercover reporters from the Sunday Times suggested that the postal service was prioritising its more profitable parcels business over letters, something it has vehemently denied.
The Commons business and trade committee has now written to parent company International Distribution Service’s new chief executive Martin Seidenberg for details of how he intends to improve the Royal Mail’s performance.
Liam Byrne, a Labour MP and committee chairman, said in the letter if the answers provided are not satisfactory “the committee retains the right to summon you to provide further oral evidence.”
Royal Mail has to deliver letters to "any address in the UK, six days a week, for standard prices within a certain time" under the terms of its Universal Service Obligation, something that it claims unfairly penalises it against rivals that can cherry-pick the most lucrative areas to operate.
The postal group made a loss of £1bn in the last financial year, which it blamed on a prolonged strike and poor productivity.
Shares in IDS were down 0.8% today at 278.4p, having recently hit a year’s high on hopes it was getting a grip on its problems.