You may not have noticed (because Royal Mail has really not been very forthcoming about the changes), but as of yesterday there were significant changes to the Royal Mail Universal Service Obligation.
Under the (previous) Universal Service Obligation (USO), which ensures a uniform postage price across the country, the postal service is required to deliver mail six days per week—Monday through Saturday.
As of yesterday, 28/7/2025 that is no longer the case. According to The Express
Under the new system, second-class mail will be distributed on alternating schedules: either Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, or Tuesdays and Thursdays, following a two-week rotation.
This seems pointlessly complicated. If changes had to be made, as OFCOM apparently decided, why not M/W/F each week? Why only 2 days on alternate weeks?
Royal Mail have provided their own page explaining the changes.
I fail to see how reducing Second Class deliveries will save money unless staffing levels are also reduced. If First Class is still being delivered Mon-Saturday, the posties are still going to be doing rounds. Sorting is mostly automated so there cannot be any savings to be made there. I believe this is the start of a plan to reduce services to eventually phase out letters completely. Some post services in Europe have done this already.
I won’t go into it further here, as I don’t want to get political. Suffice to say that this is conveniently announced a few weeks after the takeover is completed, and 2 months after Royal Mail accidentally leaked this to their business customers (before the consultation results and OFCOM’s decision was announced) resulting in a hurried follow-up letter claiming they were preparing for “if” OFCOM made the change proposals.
As to what it means for your orders…
Second Class delivery of smaller orders that are classed as Large Letters will be slower. (Large Letter is mainly smaller packets under 25mm thick)
Orders classed as parcels will apparently not change and even Second Class Parcels will continue to be delivered Mon-Sat.
I’ll keep Second Class as an option for now and monitor the situation. If it turns out that deliveries are significantly slower and I’m getting complaints, I will reassess.
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