Royal Mail could save as much as £250m a year by scrapping Saturday letter deliveries, which it says could lead to lower stamp prices and increased staff wages, figures have shown
The savings could slash the company's projected annual losses for this year, which are expected to be between £350m to £450m, by more than half, according to calculations seen by Thisismoney. The projected savings are much higher than previous estimates of £125m-£225m made by the regulator Ofcom in 2020.
Royal Mail is currently legally required to deliver letters to every address in the UK six days a week under what is known as the Universal Service Obligation (USO). It is the only postal and courier service which has this obligation, and has been pushing for deliveries to be cut to five days as the number of posted letters has fallen, pointing to the 2020 Ofcom report which concluded reducing letter deliveries to five days a week would meet the needs of 97 per cent of users. The source said that such a saving could provide enough financial wiggle room to increase pay for its staff as well as lower stamp prices.
