Royal Mail could save up to £650m if it delivered letters just three days a week and £200m by stopping Saturday deliveries, the communications regulator has said.
In a much-anticipated review, Ofcom laid out a series of options for the future of the universal service obligation (USO), which requires Royal Mail to deliver nationwide, six days a week, for a fixed price.
The regulator began gathering evidence to show how the future of the service may be reformed to better suit consumers’ needs last year, amid a long-term decline in letter volumes and a surge in the number of parcels sent as online shopping has grown.
Ofcom said there was an increasing risk that Royal Mail would become “financially and operationally unsustainable in the long term”, given the cost of delivering the USO.
It has conducted consumer research and modelled Royal Mail’s finances in the review, and will seek views with a further update planned later this year.
Melanie Dawes, the chief executive of Ofcom, said: “Postal workers are part of the fabric of our society and are critical to communities up and down the country.
The original article contains 522 words, the summary contains 186 words. Saved 64%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
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Royal Mail could save up to £650m if it delivered letters just three days a week and £200m by stopping Saturday deliveries, the communications regulator has said.
In a much-anticipated review, Ofcom laid out a series of options for the future of the universal service obligation (USO), which requires Royal Mail to deliver nationwide, six days a week, for a fixed price.
The regulator began gathering evidence to show how the future of the service may be reformed to better suit consumers’ needs last year, amid a long-term decline in letter volumes and a surge in the number of parcels sent as online shopping has grown.
Ofcom said there was an increasing risk that Royal Mail would become “financially and operationally unsustainable in the long term”, given the cost of delivering the USO.
It has conducted consumer research and modelled Royal Mail’s finances in the review, and will seek views with a further update planned later this year.
Melanie Dawes, the chief executive of Ofcom, said: “Postal workers are part of the fabric of our society and are critical to communities up and down the country.
The original article contains 522 words, the summary contains 186 words. Saved 64%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!