An Post still missing target for next-day deliveries

Next-day deliveries by An Post last year continued to be impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, with delivery rates yet to return to pre-Covid levels, report said. Picture: Denis Minihane

Slight improvements in the proportion of standard mail delivered to homes and businesses on the next working day were recorded by An Post last year, according to a new report by the postal watchdog.

The latest annual report by ComReg on the performance of An Post found 84% of single mail items were delivered on the next working day in 2021 — an increase of two percentage points on the previous year.

However, the delivery rate is still 10 percentage points below the ComReg target of 94% for next-day deliveries of standard letters, which it sets for An Post in the company’s role as universal service provider of postal services in the Republic.

The report said next-day deliveries by An Post last year continued to be impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, with delivery rates yet to return to pre-Covid levels.

ComReg acknowledged the pandemic 'continued to present challenges for An Post and the results must be taken in this context'.

ComReg acknowledged the pandemic “continued to present challenges for An Post and the results must be taken in this context”.

The next-day delivery performance for the first 11 months of the year was unchanged at 87%.

The main improvement in performance by An Post last year came during December, when the next-day delivery rate improved by 17 percentage points to 59%.

The lowest rate of delivery last year occurred between items posted from outside the capital to Dublin at 80%.

The highest rate of 86% was recorded for mail items sent from Dublin to elsewhere.

The average rate of next-day delivery of large envelopes last year was 83%, while the figure for packets was 78%.

The report shows mail posted with typed addresses had a higher next-day delivery rate of 87%, compared to handwritten items, with 81%.

In addition, the report reveals 98.2% of single-piece priority mail was delivered within three working days last year — an improvement of almost one percentage point over 2020 figures.

However, it remained below the ComReg target of 99.5%.

Although many parts of Irish society and businesses closed down as part of restrictions imposed by the Government to limit the spread of Covid-19, postal services were deemed to be an essential service.

Delivery times of more than 28,200 items of mails were assessed as part of the review of An Post’s performance in 2021, 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.