Consumer information
Common issues
Final collection times
Condition 1 of Royal Mail’s licence defines the universal service as at least one delivery and one collection of post every working day (Monday-Saturday). There are no requirements in terms of the times at which deliveries or collections should be made.
Royal Mail sets its final collection times from post boxes according to an internal standard known as ‘time specification’. The standard was implemented in 1996, with only some minor alterations made since. It is appreciated that Royal Mail needs to tailor final collections to different local characteristics within a given area, but Postcomm has decided that Royal Mail should seek to ensure that, wherever possible, there are no final collection times before midday.
The current specification is:
| Final box clearance | |
|---|---|
| Commercial | 18.30 to 19.30 |
| Town | 17.30 to 18.30 |
| Rest of UK | 16.00 to 17.30 |
| Deep rural | 09.00 to 16.00 |
Under its licence prior to 31 March 2006, there was nothing to stop Royal Mail from bringing final collection times forward without giving any notification at all. Likewise, they could move the final collection time from one collection criteria to another without giving any notice. Modifications were made to Royal Mail’s licence in April 2006. There is now an obligation for Royal Mail to publish its latest specified collection times and ensure any changes are published within one month of the change. The licence now states:
- Royal Mail shall notify Postcomm and Consumer Focus of the latest delivery times for the UK and the specified collection times and shall notify Postcomm and Consumer Focus of any changes to its latest delivery times and its specified collection times that it intends to make not less than three months prior to the change being made
- Royal Mail shall notify Postcomm and Consumer Focus of every re-classification of addresses that will result in the latest delivery time of an address becoming later, and of every re-classification of access points that will result in an access point’s specified collection time starting earlier, within one month of such a change
- Royal Mail shall publish its latest delivery times and its specified collection times and shall ensure any changes to the latest delivery times and specified collection times are published within one month of the change
Please note: Royal Mail is not obliged to notify either Postcomm or Consumer Focus of changes that occur within a time specification. For example, if the final collection time changed from 17.00 to 16.00 Royal Mail would not be required to notify either organisation as it has remained in the ‘rest of UK’ specification.
