The Royal Mail controversy – Strumech Engineering

The Royal Mail controversy has deepened significantly this Christmas Eve 2025, moving from general complaints about delays to serious allegations of systemic fraud and “greed-driven” management.

Here is a deeper dive into the crisis currently engulfing the 500-year-old institution.

1. The “Ghost Delivery” Allegations

At the heart of the scandal is a report by The Daily Telegraph and The Mirror alleging that Royal Mail managers have been ordering postal workers to fake delivery attempts.

The Tactic: Staff claim they were instructed to scan parcels as “inaccessible” or “attempted” even when they were nowhere near the address.
The Motive: These “ghost scans” allegedly trick the internal monitoring system into believing a delivery was attempted on time. This protects the performance metrics required for managers to trigger their mid-year and Christmas bonuses.
The Human Cost: Customers receive notifications saying a delivery was attempted while they were home, leading to immense frustration. More critically, it means time-sensitive Christmas gifts and cards are being left in depots while the system marks them as “processed.”

2. Ofcom’s “Hammer Blow” Fine

The timing of these allegations is particularly damaging because Ofcom, the industry regulator, just slapped Royal Mail with a record £21 million fine in October 2025.

Failure to Deliver: For the 2024/25 period, Royal Mail delivered only 77% of First Class mail on time (against a 93% target) and 92.5% of Second Class (against a 98.5% target).
A Habitual Offender: This is the third consecutive year of massive fines (£5.6m in 2023 and £10.5m in 2024). Ofcom stated that the “cycle of failing customers and simply paying a fine” must end.

3. The “Culture of Greed”

Whistleblowers within the company have described a toxic environment where senior management is focused on “efficiency savings” and bonus payouts rather than the Universal Service Obligation (USO).

“There is a culture of greed from the managers… they just care about their bonuses. It’s unethical and dishonest.” — Anonymous Postal Worker to The Telegraph.

While Royal Mail returned to a modest £12 million profit this year after years of heavy losses, critics argue this “recovery” has been built on the back of a degraded service and the controversial decision to cut Second Class delivery days.

4. Current Christmas Chaos (2025)

As of today, 92 UK postcodes are officially experiencing severe delays. Royal Mail has blamed “high levels of sick absence” and “doubled mail volumes,” but with the “fake delivery” scandal now public, trust is at an all-time low.

Postcodes most affected include: