Stamp of disapproval: a quarter of letters arrive late

CONSUMERS are facing waits of up to three days for basic post to be delivered — with one in every four letters arriving late.

The Irish Examiner posted more than 100 letters at 10 different locations to see how long An Post took to deliver mail.

The survey found just 72.8% of the letters arrived the day after posting, breaking An Post’s pledge to deliver 80% on time during 2007.

An Post’s performance also falls well short of the target set by Government’s postal watchdog ComReg for 94% of letters to arrive the next day.

Yesterday, critics said Ireland’s postal service was among the slowest in Europe, even comparing badly to delivery times in former eastern bloc communist countries.

“We are now coming up to Christmas and the busiest time for An Post, yet the service is nowhere near as good as it should be,” said Dermott Jewell of the Consumers’ Association of Ireland.

“An Post has been acknowledged as poor for a long time and they have had every opportunity to improve their service to consumers.

“We are now looking at a postal service in chaos and without a doubt this has got to be addressed by ComReg, who should either guarantee a service or a refund.”

During September and October the Irish Examiner posted batches of 10 or 11 letters a time from 10 locations, including Ireland’s principal cities and Birmingham, England.

Letters were sent in different size and colour envelopes with addresses either handwritten or printed, and were addressed to nine city and suburban homes in Ireland and two in Britain.

But on just two occasions out of 10 did all letters arrive at Irish addresses within the ComReg target of 94% of mail arriving the day after posting.

The two best performers were a batch posted in Dublin and another lot sent from Co Donegal, but with the addresses “as Gaeilge.”

Remarkably, the worst performer of the 10 was a batch posted in Dublin with addresses in Irish.

One letter “as Gaeilge” took as long as four days to arrive in Clonmel, Co Tipperary from Dublin — the same time as a delivery to England during the British postal strike.

Surprisingly, the survey also found that letters posted in Belfast arrived in England quicker than they did in Dublin and seven other locations in the State.

For instance, a letter took two days to make the 165-kilometre trip from Belfast to Dublin but only a day to reach Birmingham, which is 356 kilometres away in England.

The Irish Examiner made sure letters were placed into letterboxes on different days of the week and were usually posted around noon to guarantee a collection that day by An Post.

However, letters from a batch posted in rural Co Offaly at 5.30am on one occasion took up to three days to reach parts of Cork, while arriving the same day in other addresses in the same city.

Letters to Britain took up to a week to arrive during the postal strike but even before the industrial action, mail was taking up to five days to be delivered.

By contrast, letters posted in Birmingham, England, all arrived on time within two days at Irish addresses, except for one item of mail which is still missing.

Of the 103 that were posted, 101 arrived so An Post can claim to deliver 98% of the mail posted in or to Ireland.

But of the 101, just 75 arrived the next day, meaning one in four letters is late in arriving when An Post are involved in delivery.

By contrast Britain’s Royal Mail, which runs the postal service in the North, delivers 94% of next-day mail on time even if letters are posted across the Irish Sea.

Ireland’s delivery rates have averaged around 72% since 2003, making the country’s postal service one of the poor relations of Europe.

Belgium, Holland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Austria, Britain and Poland all have postal services delivering 90% or more of post the day after delivery.

Ireland, by contrast, is on a par with Greece, France and Lithuania, which are among the worst performers in Europe with delivery rates ranging from 70% to 79% of mail being delivered next day.

Yesterday An Post insisted delivery times were improving, adding that the latest ComReg figures covering April, May and June, showed 78% of mail arrived on time at homes and businesses, compared to 73% last year.

“This is evidence of the company’s determination to drive up mails service quality while handling ever-increasing volumes of letter and parcel mail,” said head of communications Anna McHugh. She said the Irish Examiner’s findings backed up ComReg’s figures about the next-day delivery rates for mail to homes in Ireland.

“An Post is fully committed to reaching our interim target of 80% next-day delivery this year and to achieving the target of 94% within three years,” she added.

Measures being taken to ensure An Post delivers 94% of mail next day include:

nBetter planning of collections, sorting and delivery services.

nSignificant investment in the An Post fleet of vehicles and the completion of an internal re-organisation.

nA commitment to ensuring consistency of collection times in urban and rural areas.

“An Post currently handles more than three million items of mail every working day,” said Ms McHugh.

“We are one of the few postal companies in Europe providing end-delivery directly to home or business addresses.

“While some items are posted too late for next-day delivery or are insufficiently addressed, packed or paid, we are striving to improve our quality of service across all categories of mail.”

ComReg, which sets targets for An Post, acknowledged the service was way below Government targets of 94% of all letters to be delivered the next day.

“We hold regular reviews with An Post to review quality of service performance and to discuss their planned initiatives to improve quality performance,” said ComReg public affairs manager Tom Butler.

“An Post currently has a major company-wide initiative under way to achieve early improvements in quality-of-service performance.

“An Post is confident that this initiative will yield improvements by the end of the year.”