Royal Mail could save £650m by moving to three-day-a-week service, says Ofcom

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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.

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24 Jan 2024

The watchdog said a reduction from six to five days a week would save £100m to £200m, and going down to three days would save between £400m and £650m.

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.

The watchdog stressed that it was not consulting on specific proposals, but said the two “primary options” for