Business / Islanders suffer the poorest postal service in the country
LESS THAN a third of first-class mail is delivered on time in Shetland, figures released by Consumer Scotland show.
Current Ofcom guidelines require Royal Mail to make 93 per cent of first-class deliveries to all postcodes in Scotland within one working day.
But in Shetland the success rate sits at 29 per cent. In Orkney and the Western Isles it is 31 per cent.
Royal Mail meanwhile said the company was continuing to explore new ways of delivering the mail.
These latest figures come on top of a deepening crisis at Royal Mail in Shetland with postal staff leaving the service due to low pay and pressured working conditions.
Royal Mail declines crisis talks as posties leave ‘in droves’ over low pay
Consumer Scotland, a non-ministerial office of the Scottish Government, is now calling for new safeguards to be considered for island communities.
While Royal Mail has failed on all its delivery targets for first class post with a UK average of 76.5 per cent in 2024/25, the three Scottish islands without safeguards have some of the slowest delivery rates in Scotland.
The well-below-standard service is affecting around 60,000 residents, the statutory body said, while the price for a first class stamp is the same than anywhere else in the country.
Industry regulator Ofcom is currently reviewing proposals to reform the universal postal service, including delivery standards expected of Royal Mail.
Consumer Scotland has now made a number of recommendations to the regulator including:
- Ofcom should ensure the needs of remote and rural consumers are adequately assessed when considering the future of postal services, including those in quality-of-service exempt island regions
- Ofcom should examine the options for introducing a new minimum quality of service target for the three island regions in Scotland currently exempt from the targets
- Ofcom should undertake analysis on Royal Mail’s postcode-level performance, including on second class post, to identify whether remote Scottish postcodes covered by targets also need extra safeguards to improve performance
Head of postal advocacy at Consumer Scotland Grace Remmington said: “We recognise that for a range of operational reasons, including ferry timetabling, that it is not reasonable or feasible for Royal Mail to be required to meet the same targets for these areas as the national UK target.
“However, there is an important issue of consumer fairness and equality where Ofcom provides a target for consumers in the rest of the UK, but does not provide any target at all for consumers in the three exempt areas.
“The lack of any performance targets means island postal consumers are in a considerably weaker and more vulnerable position than consumers in other parts of the UK.
“The current changes being considered in the postal sector provide a window of opportunity to strengthen protection for island consumers.
“Everyone should have safeguards which protect them from a poor postal service.”
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We are fully committed to the Universal Service across the UK, which includes delivering to all 2.9 million addresses in Scotland, as well as rural, remote and island communities.
“We continue to explore new methods of delivering mail to remote locations, such as drone trials, and are working closely with ferry and flight operators to improve reliability.
“Recruitment and retention can be challenging in these areas, and we are actively investing in local recruitment campaigns and offering retention bonuses to support our teams.”
Remmington is one of several people who will give evidence to the Scottish Affairs Committee this week as part of its investigation into the universal postal service and its impact of remote, rural and island communities.
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