An Post fails to deliver on next-day mail target

In its role as universal service provider of postal services in the Republic, An Post has a regulatory standard target of delivering 94% of mail on the next working day. Picture: Denis Minihane

There was a sharp drop in the proportion of standard mail delivered to homes and businesses by An Post on the next working day after posting in 2020, according to a new report by the regulator of postal services.

The latest annual report by ComReg on the performance of An Post found just 82% of single mail items were delivered on the next working day in 2020.

That is a drop of eight percentage points on the 2019 figure and the lowest annual rate since 2008.

In its role as universal service provider of postal services in the Republic, An Post has a regulatory standard target of delivering 94% of mail on the next working day.

However, ComReg said the result had to be taken in the context of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic for most of the year.

The results only cover a nine-month period from January-March and July-December as the monitoring of postal deliveries was temporarily suspended during the first three months of the pandemic.

However, postal services continued throughout the year as they were deemed an essential service and utility by the Government.

The overall annual rate for 2020 was significantly impacted by the poor performance of An Post on delivery rates in December 2020 when just 42% of mail was delivered on the next working day.

That compared to 75% in December 2019.

If December was excluded, the overall delivery rate for 2020 would have been 87% instead of 82%.

The review by ComReg found next-day delivery rates disimproved across all regional mail flows during 2020 with the biggest decline in mail posted to Dublin from outside the capital.

That was down 12 percentage points to 77%.

ComReg said it was “commendable” that An Post continued to provide such a universal postal service through the pandemic despite the challenges presented by Covid-19, which had a significant impact on public life in Ireland for nine months of 2020.

The figures show that 97.4% of single piece priority mail was delivered within three working days in 2020, which was down on the previous year’s performance of 99.1% and below the regulatory standard of 99.5%.

Delivery times of almost 20,000 items of mails were assessed as part of the review of An Post’s performance in 2020, conducted on behalf of ComReg by Ipsos MRBI.

Monitoring of An Post’s performance first began in 2003, when just 71% of mail was delivered on the next working day.

The rate of next-day delivery continued to improve over the following decade and peaked in 2015 and 2016 at 91%.

Between 2017 and 2019, the annual performance ranged between 89% and 90% for next day deliveries.