However, widespread disruptions across the network mean that households and businesses in the affected regions will not receive their mail on schedule. As of Friday, July 10, there are disruptions in 198 areas including Cambridge, Nottingham, Barry, Hull and Stockport. Royal Mail said: “We aim to deliver to all addresses we have mail for, six days a week.
“In a small number of local offices, this may temporarily not be possible due to local issues such as high levels of sick absence, resourcing, or other local factors.
“In those cases, we will rotate deliveries to minimise the delay to individual customers. We also provide targeted support to those offices to address their challenges and restore our service to the high standard our customers would normally receive.
“We’re sorry for any inconvenience and thank you for your understanding.” Over the past 24 hours, Royal Mail’s air and road network operated to schedule.
Royal Mail previously told customers: “Our posties and drivers are taking extra care in the heat to keep themselves and our customers safe… thank you for your patience if deliveries take a little longer.”
The company has faced criticism regarding delayed deliveries in recent years and was handed a £21million penalty by Ofcom in October as a result. The firm failed to meet its objectives after achieving just 77% of First Class post and 92.5% of Second Class post delivered on time in 2024 to 2025.
This year, Royal Mail has outlined enhanced objectives. It is targeting improvement of First Class Next Day delivery to approximately 85% within nine months, before achieving the 90% benchmark established by regulator Ofcom within a year.
Jamie Stephenson, Royal Mail’s chief operating officer, said: “We’re putting significant investment into improving reliability and reaching these new delivery targets, but delivering lasting change across a network of this scale takes time.
“Universal Service reform is a key part of that, helping us adapt the network to reflect how people send and receive mail today while protecting the one-price- goes-anywhere service for the future.
“We have a plan to deploy the new delivery model to all delivery offices across the country by the Christmas peak period and have set clear targets for each quarter as changes are introduced across the network.
“Early performance this year shows we are tracking in line with the plan and moving in the right direction.”