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Royal Mail has missed its latest delivery performance targets, despite recording a significant improvement in the number of First and Second Class letters arriving on time.
During the first quarter of 2026/27, 85% of First Class mail was delivered by the next working day, falling short of Ofcom’s 90% target.
For Second Class post, 91.4% arrived within three working days, compared with the regulator’s 95% requirement.
Although neither target was reached, the results are considerably stronger than a year earlier. In the equivalent quarter, only 76% of First Class post and 89.3% of Second Class mail met their respective delivery standards.
The improvement comes as Royal Mail implements one of the biggest changes to its letter delivery network in decades, including a move towards alternate weekday deliveries for Second Class letters and the end of routine Saturday Second Class deliveries.
What Are Royal Mail’s Current Delivery Targets?
Ofcom changed Royal Mail’s regulated quality-of-service requirements from 1 April 2026.
Under the new standards:
| Mail service | Current target | Previous target |
| First Class | 90% delivered next working day | 93% |
| Second Class | 95% delivered within three working days | 98.5% |
| First Class reliability target | 99% within three working days | New measure |
| Second Class reliability target | 99% within five working days | New measure |
The regulator lowered the headline First Class target from 93% to 90%, while the Second Class requirement dropped from 98.5% to 95%.
However, Ofcom also introduced tougher protections against particularly long delays. Royal Mail must now ensure 99% of First Class letters arrive within three working days and 99% of Second Class letters arrive within five working days.
These additional standards are often described as “tail of mail” targets because they are designed to prevent a relatively small proportion of letters from becoming severely delayed.
How Far Did Royal Mail Miss Its Latest Targets?
Royal Mail’s results for the period from 30 March to 28 June 2026 show that it remains below both of Ofcom’s main standards.
First Class performance reached 85%, leaving Royal Mail five percentage points below the required 90%.
Second Class performance stood at 91.4%, which was 3.6 percentage points short of its 95% target.
Royal Mail also missed Ofcom’s new 99% reliability standards. According to the latest reported figures, 98.1% of First Class letters arrived within three working days, while 98.4% of Second Class post arrived within five working days.
While those figures are close to the 99% requirement, they demonstrate that Royal Mail still has work to do to reduce longer delays as well as improve headline delivery times.
Has Royal Mail’s Delivery Performance Improved?
Despite missing the targets, the year-on-year improvement is substantial.
First Class next-day performance rose from 76% to 85%, an increase of nine percentage points.
Second Class performance within three working days increased from 89.3% to 91.4%.
Royal Mail believes the figures show that measures introduced under its service improvement programme are starting to have an effect.
Chief operating officer Jamie Stephenson said the latest performance was encouraging, adding that First Class delivery was progressing ahead of the company’s expectations at this stage of its improvement programme, while Second Class performance was broadly following its planned trajectory.
However, Royal Mail has also acknowledged that further improvement is required before it consistently meets Ofcom’s standards.
Why Did Ofcom Lower Royal Mail’s Delivery Targets?
The reduction in delivery targets forms part of a wider reform of the UK’s Universal Service Obligation, which determines the minimum postal service Royal Mail is required to provide.
Traditional letter volumes have been falling for years as households and businesses increasingly communicate digitally.
Ofcom concluded that maintaining the previous delivery model and performance requirements would become increasingly expensive and could ultimately place the sustainability of the universal postal service under greater pressure.
The regulator therefore reduced the First Class next-day target from 93% to 90% and the Second Class three-day target from 98.5% to 95%.
Ofcom has estimated that successfully implementing changes to Second Class deliveries could eventually generate annual net cost savings of between £250 million and £425 million, potentially giving Royal Mail more capacity to invest in reliability.
What Is Changing for Second Class Deliveries?
One of the most significant reforms involves how Second Class letters are delivered.
Royal Mail is moving towards delivering Second Class letters every other weekday from Monday to Friday, rather than maintaining the previous delivery pattern.
That means Second Class letters will no longer have a normal Saturday delivery service once the new system is fully implemented.
First Class mail is different. Royal Mail says First Class letters will continue to be delivered six days a week, maintaining the next-working-day service aim. Parcels are also unaffected by the Second Class letter reform and can continue to be delivered up to seven days a week.
Royal Mail expects the revised delivery model to be operating throughout its roughly 1,200 delivery offices by Christmas 2026.
Ofcom said the rollout followed an agreement between Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union after implementation was delayed while negotiations took place.
How Is Royal Mail Planning to Improve Its Service?
Royal Mail has committed to a five-year improvement programme backed by £500 million of investment.
The company’s Quality of Service Improvement Plan establishes a quarter-by-quarter path towards complying with the revised regulatory standards. Ofcom said the plan is intended to bring Royal Mail up to the required performance level by spring 2027.
The wider transformation includes changes to delivery patterns, technology upgrades and operational reforms across Royal Mail’s network.
Royal Mail has said it expects to meet the regulatory quality-of-service targets by May 2027, although Ofcom will continue assessing its actual performance against the legally enforceable standards.
Why Is Ofcom Investigating Royal Mail?
Royal Mail’s latest improvement comes against a difficult regulatory backdrop.
On 1 June 2026, Ofcom opened an investigation into the company’s performance during the 2025/26 financial year after Royal Mail again failed to meet its required service standards.
For that year, Royal Mail delivered only:
- 75.7% of First Class letters within one working day, against the then-target of 93%.
- 90.2% of Second Class letters within three working days, against the then-target of 98.5%.
Ofcom said it would examine whether Royal Mail had breached its regulatory obligations and whether another financial penalty would be appropriate.
The investigation follows previous enforcement action against the postal operator.
How Much Has Royal Mail Been Fined for Poor Performance?
In October 2025, Ofcom imposed a record £21 million fine on Royal Mail for failing to meet its delivery targets during 2024/25.
After Ofcom’s adjustments, Royal Mail achieved 77% First Class performance against a 93% target and 92.5% for Second Class against a 98.5% requirement.
That followed a £10.5 million fine in December 2024 relating to 2023/24 and a £5.6 million penalty in November 2023 for failures during 2022/23.
Ofcom said in June 2026 that it had fined Royal Mail more than £37 million for delivery failures in recent years.
The regulator has made clear that reducing the official targets does not remove Royal Mail’s obligation to deliver a reliable service.
Why Is Royal Mail Restructuring Its Delivery Network?
The economics of the postal market have changed dramatically as people send fewer letters while online shopping drives greater demand for parcels.
Royal Mail’s results for the year ending March 2026 showed that parcel volumes increased 7% to 1.44 billion, while addressed letter volumes excluding election mail dropped 10% to 5.72 billion.
Parcels have therefore become an increasingly important part of Royal Mail’s business.
At the same time, the company is dealing with higher employment costs. Royal Mail’s reported operating profit fell from £198 million to £96 million in 2025/26, while employee costs increased by 5.5%.
Its annual accounts said higher National Insurance contributions created an additional £133 million cost, alongside wage increases for frontline workers.
These pressures help explain why Royal Mail and Ofcom argue that the traditional letter delivery network needs to be redesigned.
What Do the Changes Mean for Royal Mail Customers?
For customers, the reforms create a clearer distinction between First and Second Class services.
First Class letters remain intended for quicker mail, with delivery continuing six days a week and 90% expected to arrive on the next working day.
Second Class letters remain cheaper but will increasingly operate under the alternate-weekday delivery system, with a target for 95% to arrive within three working days.
Customers should therefore not assume that a Second Class letter will be delivered on a Saturday once the new model is operating in their area.
The new 99% reliability standards should also provide greater protection against unusually long delays. Royal Mail may miss its headline next-day or three-day target for a proportion of letters, but almost all mail is still expected to arrive within the longer regulatory deadline.
Can Royal Mail Meet Its Targets by 2027?
The first-quarter results offer some evidence that Royal Mail’s performance is moving in the right direction, particularly for First Class post.
Improving from 76% to 85% in a year represents significant progress. However, reaching 90% consistently across a national network remains a substantial operational challenge.
Second Class delivery also has further ground to make up, moving from its current 91.4% performance to the required 95%.
Royal Mail will therefore need to demonstrate that its recent improvement can continue as the redesigned delivery model expands nationwide.
Ofcom has indicated that it will continue holding the company accountable for its regulatory obligations, while Royal Mail maintains that its £500 million investment and wider transformation programme provide a credible route towards compliance.
What Is the Outlook for Royal Mail’s Delivery Performance?
The latest Royal Mail delivery performance targets remain unmet, but the figures represent one of the clearest improvements in service levels for some time.
First Class performance has climbed sharply, while Second Class reliability is also moving upwards.
Nevertheless, Royal Mail remains below both Ofcom’s headline targets and the regulator’s new 99% protections against extended delays.
The next few quarters will therefore be important. Royal Mail is simultaneously attempting to improve delivery reliability, introduce alternate-weekday Second Class deliveries, control rising costs and adapt its network to a market increasingly dominated by parcels rather than letters.
Its latest results suggest the turnaround programme is gaining momentum, but the postal operator still has a significant gap to close before it can say it is consistently meeting the service standards expected by Ofcom and its customers.