Royal Mail is ready to significantly reduce its second -class delivery service, move on to an alternative day schedule and discard the delivery of Saturday completely, under radical reforms approved by the United Kingdom postal regulator, ofcom.
As of July 28, 2025, the second -class letters will be delivered only three times a week, either on Monday, Wednesday and Friday or Thursday, in a two -week rotating cycle.
However, the changes will be gradually implemented, after the pilot schemes already launched in 37 of the 1,200 Royal Mail delivery offices.
First class mail services will remain unchanged, with deliveries that continue six days a week. Royal Mail also aims to maintain its current goal to deliver second -class items within three business days, despite the reduced delivery frequency.
The reforms are noted that the traditional postal model is no longer sustainable, citing a dramatic decrease in the volumes of cards, of 20 billion cards in 2004-05 to only 6.6 billion in 2023-24. The changes are expected to save real mail between £ 250 million and £ 425 million annually.
Together with the new schedule, Royal Mail will also see relaxed performance objectives. The next day delivery requirement will be reduced from 93% to 90%, while the objective of the second -class mail delivered within three days will decrease from 98.5% to 95%. A new reference point, which states that 99% of the mail does not reach more than two days of delay, it will also be introduced to address long delays.
These adjustments follow a condemnatory investigation that revealed only 74% of the delivery terms after the first class class last year. Since then, Royal Mail has been fined with £ 16 million for losing its goals for two consecutive years.
The director of the ofcom group for Reds and Communications, Natalie Black, defended the changes, calling them “in the best interest of consumers and companies”, but warned that the successful implementation is now based on the real mail.
“The urgent reform of the postal service is necessary to give it the best opportunity for survival,” said Black. “But changing the obligations of Royal Mail only will not guarantee a better service: the company now has to play its role and implement this effectively.”
The United Kingdom government echoed the feeling of ofcom, recognizing the need for modernization, but insisting that the universal service principle, which allows the British to send a letter anywhere in the country to a single price, must remain intact.
“With the way people use the postal services that have changed, it is correct that the regulator has seen this,” said a government spokesman. “Now we need Royal Mail to work with unions and posties to provide a service that people wait.”
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