An Post performance still well short of targets

The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg), the National Regulatory Authority (NRA) for the postal industry in Ireland, today published the results of its quarterly independent eport on the Quality of Service performance of An Post.

The report shows that 78% of single piece priority mail (standard correspondence) was

delivered within one working day throughout the State against a target of 94%.

This represents a 4% increase in service quality performance during the same period in 2006, albeit well short of the quality of service target set by ComReg.

It was also foind that 79% of mail posted in Dublin for nationwide delivery is reported as delivered the next working day, while 76% of mail posted outside Dublin for delivery throughout the State is delivered within one working day of posting.

Mail posted outside of Dublin for next day delivery in Dublin recorded a 72% success rate, while mail posted outside of Dublin for local delivery recorded a success rate of 81%.

Finally, the report found that 98% of all mail was delivered within 3 working days - still short of the 99.5% performance target set by ComReg.

"The improved performance will be welcomed by all postal users and suggests that benefits are accruing from targeted and consistent actions by An Post Management in the area of quality in recent times," said ComReg chairperson Mike Byrne.

Said

"It is important that this progress is sustainable so that it can provide a platform for continuous improvement until the service experience by Irish consumers is on a par with that enjoyed in other leading European countries."

An Post have reacted positively to the results.

"These results confirm the steady improvement we have seen in our internal quality measures and it is all the more satisfying given the increased volume of mail we handled during this period," said An Post chief executive Donal Connell.

"They also confirm the results issued recently by the International Postal Corporation (IPC) on international mail and also acknowledged by Royal Mail."

"We will continue to drive mail service performance and we are fully committed to reaching our target of 80% next-day delivery this year and to achieving ComReg’s target of 94% within 3 years."

The survey is undertaken independently of postal operators. The survey is based on the statistical methods set out by the European Standards Institute (CEN) and is mandated by the European

Commission.

In accordance with the CEN standard, bulk mail is not included. The survey is conducted by TNS mrbi and is independently audited.