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owner of Royal Mail has announced a delay in the wider implementation of its controversial delivery reforms, which will include the closure of second class letter services on Saturdays.
International Delivery Services (ID) confirmed that these changes will not be implemented across the UK until early next year.
IDS, which was acquired last year by Czech billionaire Daniel Kratinsky’s EP Group for £3.6 billion, The overhaul is being tested in 35 delivery offices.
Pilot plan includes eliminating second class deliveries on Saturdays and service changes every other weekday.
regulator Ofcom The government had earlier given the green signal for these reforms to begin from the end of July. However, in its half-year results published on Wednesday, the group said widespread implementation of the new arrangements would be postponed until early 2026.
IDS chief executive Martin Seidenberg had previously described the reforms as a “huge task” and stressed the need to “take the time to get this right” rather than rushing into expansion across its national network.
The company also said it was too early to tell when the changes would be completed, or which of its 1,200 delivery offices would be next overhauled.
Ofcom last month fined Royal Mail £21 million for failing to meet its annual first and second class mail delivery targets, which led to millions of letters being delayed across the UK. This is the third largest fine ever imposed by the communications watchdog.
Ofcom found that Royal Mail delivered 77 per cent of first class mail and 92.5 per cent of second class mail on time during the 2024/25 financial year.
As part of reforms to the universal postal service, Ofcom has reduced the target for first class mail to be delivered next day from 93 per cent to 90 per cent, and for second class mail to be delivered within three days from 98.5 per cent to 95 per cent.
But the regulator has added a new “enforceable” backstop delivery target, so that 99 percent of mail is not delivered more than two days late.
The latest interim figures showed Royal Mail revenue rose 1.5 per cent to £3.98 billion in the six months to September 28, as a 3.2 per cent rise in parcels business offset a 0.4 per cent decline in letters.
Total revenues of the wider IDS group rose 1.6 per cent to £6.45 billion, with revenues of the GLS international parcels business rising 1.9 per cent to £2.48 billion.
Royal Mail said the performance was “set against a backdrop of rising costs and wider economic pressures, which are expected to continue until 2026”.
“These include an increase of approximately £120 million in National Insurance contributions, increased wage costs in UK business and complexities in the global trading environment,” the group said.
It also said it had hired 20,000 temporary staff ahead of the busy Christmas season, opening four seasonal parcel sorting centers with 7,000 new vans and an additional 118,000 square meters of extra space, the equivalent of 16.5 football pitches.
Mr Seidenberg said: “We never underestimate the important role we play at Christmas, and we are hiring more people, opening temporary parcel sorting centres, and putting more vans on the road to deliver to our customers again this year.”