94.1% of First Class letters were delivered the working day after posting, compared to a target for the service of 93%. 98.8% of Second Class letters arrived within three days, compared to a target of 98.5%.

Chief executive Adam Crozier said that these results – the best ever – show a sustained period of record performance proving Royal Mail’s determination to compete for business by offering customers the very best service at a value for money price. “Rivals will find our standards difficult to match,” said Crozier.

Royal Mail beat all but three of its thirteen product targets. Only 2% of the 81 million items posted every day in the UK failed to meet the required service standard, and only two of the 121 postcode areas failed to reach their targets, and then only by a small margin. Twelve out of thirteen products are achieving their best ever performance.

Crozier added: “There will be no let up. We have continued to improve our performance in every single target area. We are closer to delivering a truly consistent performance. We know that our customers will expect even more in the future - we're determined to meet that challenge.”