Royal Mail to Invest £500m Improving Service as Part-Time Workers Offered Longer Hours

Royal Mail has announced a £500m investment plan over the next five years to improve its letter delivery service, as it seeks to address criticism from the government and regulator Ofcom.

The company will offer part-time postal workers the option to work longer hours and give posties more familiar routes in an effort to deliver more letters on time.

Ofcom agreed to relax Royal Mail's letter delivery targets this month, but the company has failed to meet even those lower target levels, according to its latest figures. Royal Mail is currently delivering just 75% of first-class letters on time against a target of 93%.

The firm told BBC Breakfast it would take five to six months to implement its plans and that delivery targets would be met in a year's time.

Additionally, low-priority second-class and other non-first-class posts will be delivered every other weekday instead of daily. Parcels will still be delivered Monday to Saturday.

The company has repeatedly said that its Universal Service Obligation (USO) – its legal requirement to deliver letters six days a week to every address in the UK – is outdated and needs reform.

Postal workers across the UK have previously told BBC Your Voice that they are being asked to move or hide mail from senior bosses so it looks like delivery targets are being met.

Royal Mail has also been accused of prioritising parcels over letters as they are more profitable – accusations the company denies.

Dave Ward, the general secretary of the Communication Workers' Union (CWU), said on Tuesday that Royal Mail staff "welcome any plan that reverses the chaos that posties have seen".

But he told BBC Breakfast that the company does not have "a great track record in sticking to their promises".

"The issue really is: will the company actually allow posties to have the tools for the job?" he said. "Can we fully resource offices? Can we keep staff? We've not been able to do that in recent times. And also, will they allow the postie to actually use their expertise and their knowledge to design the routes?"