LONDON, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- The mail service in Britain faces scrutiny amid complaints that letters are being delivered late because carriers are failing to complete their routes.
Postwatch, the mail service's watchdog group, will survey thousands of households to find out whether mail is arriving on time, The Telegraph reported Sunday.
Authorities say they want to know if letter carriers are taking undelivered mail back to the post office at the end of a shift rather than finishing the round in overtime.
Letter delays have been blamed on new procedure introduced after strikes by the Communication Workers Union, and a new 56 mph speed limit for mail trucks, the newspaper reported.
"There's no change to our pledge to customers to deliver the mail by 2 p.m. in urban areas and by 3 p.m. in rural areas," a Royal Mail official said. "The focus of everything we're doing now is to deliver the best possible Christmas service."
