Royal Mail considering ‘bin collection’ style website to help cut services

The company was fined £5.6m last year after delivering 80 per cent of first class post on time

Royal Mail has suggested a website where customers can check what days their letters will be delivered (Rui Vieira/PA) (PA Wire)

Royal Mail is considering launching a “bin collection” style service on their website for households to track which day their mail will be delivered, in a bid to cut back on services.

The company has suggested reducing its second-class deliveries to alternate weekdays, cutting nearly 1,000 jobs and saving £300m a year.

It has been reported that the 507-year-old company has proposed a service where customers can input their postcode to discover when their letters and packages are due.

A senior industry source told The Guardian: “The idea is that it would work in the same way as the bin collection site. Anything Royal Mail can do to show that cuts can be done smoothly and the service can be more predictable and reliable could convince Ofcom.”

The regulator Ofcom is studying the proposals and said last week that second-class letter deliveries could be scrapped on Saturdays.

The company has suggested reducing its second class deliveries to alternate weekdays (John Giles/PA) (PA Archive)

In the three months to 30 June, Royal Mail delivered less than 80 per cent of first-class post on time, with Ofcome fining it £5.6m last year for missing delivery targets.

The industry source added: “Those who rely on the service the most will be those, typically older, people who are not connected to the internet to check when their deliveries are due. Also, if this lists when the post is supposed to be delivered – that’s not a guarantee the delivery will happen given the current state of the service.

They added that the fine for failure last year had been “too small” and that the company should not be allowed to reduce the service without improving reliability.

A Royal Mail spokesperson told The Guardian: “Ahead of any potential reform of the universal service, Royal Mail is exploring a range of options to ensure customers have the information they need about their local postal services.”