3 December, 2004

Post early

According to the Guardian, postal industry watchdog Postwatch recommends that people use second class stamps to send items through the UK mail in time for christmas, right up until the last posting day.  Past experience has shown first class post to be less reliable.

This doesn't mean second class is faster, of course, just that the claimed delivery date (third working day after posting) can be relied upon, whereas the Royal Mail has a rather more patchy record (30% failure) for meeting the first class delivery date (next working day after posting); it's simply not worth paying the extra (28p vs. 21p) for a service which will probably take just as long.