Il Nuovo Postiglione - UK's Royal Mail hit with fine by regulator over delivery delays

The fine is nearly double the penalty given to it by the watchdog last year, as the UK's struggling postal service has failed to sufficiently improve its six-days-a-week service.

Royal Mail delivered on time 74.7 percent of first-class post and 92.7 percent of second-class post, according to the regulator.

That fell short of targets of 93 percent and 98.5 percent, respectively.

"With millions of letters arriving late, far too many people aren't getting what they pay for when they buy a stamp," said Ian Strawhorne, Ofcom's director of enforcement.

"Royal Mail's poor service is now eroding public trust in one of the UK's oldest institutions," he said of the 500-year-old postal service.

Ofcom said it took into account that Royal Mail had been "losing hundreds of millions of pounds", noting that the fine for the former state monopoly would be passed in full to the Treasury department.

Royal Mail, which was privatised in 2013, has suffered in recent years from falling parcel volumes, failures in mail delivery and strikes over pay.

The penalty comes as Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky awaits government approval for a £3.6 billion ($3.8 billion) deal to buy the postal service from current owner International Distribution Services.

Britain's communications regulator has previously proposed that Royal Mail cut delivery to five days a week, or even just three days, potentially saving the company hundreds of millions of pounds.

IDS has long called for a shakeup of the universal service obligation (USO), which stipulates that Royal Mail must deliver letters six days a week to all 32 million addresses in the UK for the price of a stamp.

However, in Kretinsky's bid to take over the service, he has already guaranteed to maintain the USO.

Q.Bernardi--INP