Millions of letters are being delivered late every week despite the cost of stamps doubling in the past ten years.
An experiment found that only two thirds of 1st-class letters arrived the next day, significantly less than Royal Mail’s target of 93 per cent.
The Times sent more than 500 letters to and from seven locations including Penzance, London, and Liverpool. Only 200 of 304 1st-class letters arrived the next day. Almost 29 per cent took two days and 5 per cent took three days. One letter did not arrive at all. A 1st-class stamp costs 64p, up from 32p in 2006.
By contrast, 2nd-class post appears to work more reliably, with 90 per cent arriving within two days.
However, both services appear to have deteriorated markedly. In 2010 The Times conducted the same experiment and found that 96 per cent of 1st-class post arrived on time. All the 2nd-class post arrived within two days, except for two letters that arrived early.
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The experiment also tested the importance of including the postcode. One in ten letters with just one incorrect letter in the postcode failed to arrive.
The results suggest there is a particular problem with Royal Mail in London. Almost 97 per cent of post sent to and from addresses outside of the capital arrived the next day, including every letter sent between Land’s End and Edinburgh, a 568-mile journey. However, only one in five letters sent within London arrived the next day.
Royal Mail handles about 44 million letters a day and says the service is independently monitored. The last survey conducted in 2014-15 found that 93 per cent of 1st-class post arrived the next day. However, it would not disclose the performance figures for London.
Experts say that one in every seven letters is sent to or from the capital. If Royal Mail’s performance in the Times survey was replicated nationwide it would mean that more than 20 million letters arrive late each week.
A Royal Mail spokeswoman said: “We take our performance very seriously. The 93 per cent target is very stretching but we met or exceeded it for the past two years. We do not believe that these results are representative of postal deliveries in London.”