Royal Mail’s First Class delivery performance rose 9.0 percentage points year-on-year to 85.0% in the first quarter of the 2026-27 financial year, according to the company’s latest quality of service results, covering March 30 to June 28, 2026.
Second Class performance, measured by delivery within three working days, rose 2.1 percentage points to 91.4%, up from 89.3% in the same period last year. Reliability measures also improved: 98.1% of First Class mail arrived within three working days, up from 97.0%, and 98.4% of Second Class mail arrived within five working days, up from 98.2%.
The results put Royal Mail ahead of the Q1 trajectory set out in its Improvement Plan, published in April, which targeted 77-79% First Class performance for the quarter. Second Class performance of 91.4% falls within the plan’s target range of 90.5-91.5%. Across all letter products, the company says 93% are delivered on time and more than 99% within a week.
Despite the gains, all four measures remain below Ofcom’s regulatory targets, which require 90% of First Class mail to be delivered the next working day, 95% of Second Class mail within three working days, and 99% reliability for both classes within their respective windows.
Royal Mail says the improvement is being driven by a new delivery model under which First Class letters continue to be delivered six days a week, while Second Class and other non-First Class letters are delivered every other weekday. The model is being rolled out across the company’s 1,200 delivery offices as part of a £500m (US$682m) investment over five years.
Jamie Stephenson, Royal Mail chief operating officer, said: “These results are encouraging and show that the work we are doing to improve the service is having an impact. First Class performance is well ahead of where we expected to be at this stage of our Improvement Plan, while Second Class is tracking in line with the plan.
“We know there is more to do. We are investing £500 million over five years and making significant changes across our network, including rolling out the new delivery model across all 1,200 of our delivery offices. None of this progress would be possible without the continued hard work of our frontline colleagues, including through the recent extreme heat.”
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