Royal Mail to scrap Saturday second-class post for nearly a million households next year amid huge shake-up of the business
Share:
Royal Mail will scrap Saturday second-class post for nearly a million households next year. The postal service, which is in the process of being bought by the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, will trial making fewer deliveries from February. It is the first step towards Royal Mail permanently axing second- class deliveries on Saturdays in a huge shake-up of the business.
![[The reduced delivery trial will be rolled out at 37 of Royal Mail's 1,200 delivery offices, affecting almost a million homes]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/12/22/22/93409739-14219671-The_reduced_delivery_trial_will_be_rolled_out_at_37_of_Royal_Mai-a-45_1734905020999.jpg)
The reduced delivery trial will be rolled out at 37 of Royal Mail's 1,200 delivery offices, affecting almost a million homes. The exact locations have not been revealed but the pilot is expected to affect around three delivery offices in each of Royal Mail's 12 regions to ensure an even spread across the country.
First-class and parcel deliveries will still be made six days a week. Currently Royal Mail must deliver letters six days a week to all 32million addresses in the UK under the Universal Service Obligation. But the postal service has been lobbying for change for four years, saying the commitment costs up to £2million a day.
Letter volumes have fallen from a peak of 20billion a year in 2004/5 to just 6.7billion annually, it said. The postal service, which is in the process of being bought by the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky, will trial making fewer deliveries from February.
The reduced delivery trial will be rolled out at 37 of Royal Mail's 1,200 delivery offices, affecting almost a million homes. Watchdog Ofcom will launch a consultation on the proposal to deliver second class letters every other working day early next year.
