Mail deliveries are facing disruption in several parts of the UK after Royal Mail issued a service alert affecting 15 postcode areas on Monday. The company said local operational problems, including staff shortages and resourcing issues, are temporarily affecting deliveries in a number of delivery offices. The delays come at a time of mounting scrutiny over Royal Mail’s service performance, following regulatory action and changes to national delivery targets earlier this year.
Royal Mail confirmed that several delivery offices across England and Scotland are currently unable to maintain normal service levels. According to the company, deliveries are being rotated in some affected areas in an effort to reduce delays for individual households and businesses.
The postal operator stated that it still aims to deliver mail to all addresses six days a week where possible. In a public update issued on Monday, Royal Mail said the disruption was linked to “high levels of sick absence, resourcing, or other local factors” affecting local offices.
Local Delivery Offices Affected by Delays
The affected postcode areas include parts of Derbyshire, Northamptonshire, the West Midlands, Oxfordshire, Shropshire and Scotland. Royal Mail listed Alfreton DO covering DE55, Brackley DO covering NN12 and NN13, Brierley Hill DO covering DY5, and Daventry DO covering NN11 among the impacted delivery offices.
Other affected areas include Erskine DO serving PA7 and PA8, Kidlington DO covering OX5 and OX20, Tweedale DO covering TF3, TF4, TF7, TF8 and TF12, and Wantage DO serving OX12.
According to Royal Mail, its national air and road distribution network operated normally over the previous 24 hours. The company said transport movements across the network ran to schedule despite the local disruptions.
Royal Mail also reported processing issues at the Truro Mail Centre over the weekend. The company stated that some mail posted in the TR postcode area on Friday for delivery elsewhere in the UK on Saturday was not processed and despatched on time.
In its statement, Royal Mail apologised for the inconvenience caused to customers and said support was being provided to local offices to restore normal operations. The company added that deliveries would continue to be rotated where necessary until service levels improve.
Pressure Grows after Missed Delivery Targets
The latest disruption follows ongoing criticism over Royal Mail’s delivery performance. According to Ofcom, the company was fined £21 million in October after missing its statutory delivery targets during the 2024–25 financial year.
The regulator reported that Royal Mail delivered only 77% of First Class mail on time and 92.5% of Second Class mail within the required delivery window. Those figures fell below the targets that were in place at the time. Last month, Ofcom revised the delivery targets for letter services. The First Class next-day delivery target was reduced from 93% to 90%, while the Second Class three-day delivery target was lowered from 98.5% to 95%.
Royal Mail has since outlined a £500 million turnaround plan aimed at improving service reliability by May 2027. According to the company, the strategy includes plans to improve First Class next-day delivery rates to around 85% within nine months before reaching Ofcom’s revised 90% target within a year.
The company also said it intends to deliver 93% of Second Class mail within three days over the next nine months, before reaching the updated 95% target by May next year. As part of the wider changes, Royal Mail is planning to end Saturday deliveries for Second Class letters and move towards an alternating weekday delivery pattern.
