Royal Mail misses delivery target

The amount of mail posted has also been hit by the strikes

Royal Mail has said it missed its key target for delivering first-class post on time in the 2007-8 financial year because of industrial action.

About 85% of letters arrived the next day, missing the 93% target.

The watchdog Postwatch said the strikes had "blown Royal Mail off course", but it complained the service had not recovered quickly enough.

It argued that poor service should affect executives' bonuses. Last year, the chief executive was paid £3m.

FIRST-CLASS DELIVERIES Jan-March 08 - 92.2% on time Oct-Dec 07 - 79.3% on time July-Sept 07 - 78.4% on time Source: Royal Mail

The delivery of second-class letters was more reliable, according to the figures released by Royal Mail, but also fell short of the required level.

More than 95% of the second-class post arrived on time, compared with a target of 99%.

Only standard parcels beat their target for the year, with 90.4% arriving on time.

"Royal Mail's recovery from the industrial action was in some respects disappointingly slow," said Millie Banerjee, who chairs Postwatch.

The company said it was working hard to improve its service and "restore the record levels seen before last year's dispute".

In a postcode-based list published by Postwatch, nine out of 10 letters were delivered on time last year in Twickenham, Kingston upon Thames, Luton, St Albans, north-west London and Canterbury.

While in Stoke-on-Trent, Colchester, south-west London, Oxford, Chelmsford and Dundee, only around four out of five first class letters were delivered on time.