Ofcom's 2022 warnings for Evri and Yodel remain unenforced four years later
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
In short. Ofcom's 2022 notice introducing new parcel rules promised that "if we do not see substantial improvements in customer service and complaints handling as a result of these changes, we will consider enforcement action or further regulation" [1]. A year ago, Ofcom's own survey credited those rules with doing exactly that, reporting that satisfaction with contacting parcel firms had risen from 41% to 45% and complaints handling satisfaction from 43% to 46% "since 2023" [2]. Ofcom's newest survey, published 27 October 2026, reports that same measure falling, not rising, from 47% to 43% in the year just gone [3]. The two companies the survey has named worst for four straight years, Evri and Yodel, are still worst, and the gap disabled customers face with deliveries, the second problem the 2023 rules were written to fix, has not closed either. Three documented mistakes: four stars.
People in the UK sent and received a record 4.6 billion parcels in the year to mid-2026, 8.6% more than the year before [3]. Ofcom tracks how happy customers are with that growing industry through an annual survey, now in its fourth year, and in 2022 it set out exactly what it would do if the survey kept finding the same problems. This piece tests that 2022 promise, and last year's claim that it was working, against what Ofcom's own newest figures actually show.
A self-imposed test from 2022
On 18 July 2022, Ofcom announced new protections for parcel customers after finding that almost two thirds of them had experienced a delivery problem, a quarter had struggled to make a complaint at all, and nearly one in ten were left with their complaint completely unresolved [1]. Two new measures followed: guidance requiring every postal operator to run a simple, transparent complaints process, effective from 1 April 2023, and a separate requirement to establish, publish and comply with policies for the fair treatment of disabled customers, effective from 1 November 2023 [1]. Ofcom did not leave the consequence of failure vague. Its own notice states it directly: "If we do not see substantial improvements in customer service and complaints handling as a result of these changes, we will consider enforcement action or further regulation" [1]. No threshold number was attached to "substantial", but the test itself was clear: look at the next few years of survey data, and act if it has not moved.
A year ago, Ofcom said the test was being passed
Ofcom's third annual parcel survey, published 22 October 2025, reported exactly the improvement the 2022 notice was written to produce. "Since 2023, we have seen customers' satisfaction with the process of contacting parcel operators increase from 41% to 45% in 2025, while complaints handling satisfaction increased from 43% to 46% during the same period," the release stated, before adding that Ofcom was "pressing parcel operators to make further, sustained improvements" [2]. On the firms that handled contacts and complaints worst, the same release named Yodel and Evri, with satisfaction scores of 38% and 31% respectively among customers who had cause to contact them [2]. On disabled customers, the group the second 2023 rule specifically targeted, the 2025 release recorded that they were more likely to encounter delivery difficulties than other customers, 73% against 65% [2]. Read on its own, the 2025 release describes a regulatory fix that was working, on both of the problems it was built to solve.
This year, the same measure reversed
Ofcom's fourth annual survey, published 27 October 2026 and based on Yonder Consulting fieldwork from January and July 2026 with 4,179 respondents, reports a different trend on the identical measure [3]. Overall satisfaction fell to 75%, "having held stable at 78% since 2023", the first decline in three years [3]. The specific figure the 2025 release had credited to the 2023 rules moved the wrong way too: "average satisfaction with contact across all operators has fallen this year from 47% to 43%" [3]. Evri and Yodel are named worst "for a fourth straight year", with contact satisfaction scores of 26% and 34%, both down on the 31% and 38% the same two companies scored a year earlier [3] [2]. On disabled customers, the gap Ofcom's 2023 rule was meant to close stood at 76% against 68% this year, the same roughly eight-point gap as the 73% against 65% recorded in 2025 [3] [2]. Ofcom's own response stops short of the 2022 notice's stated test. "We are concerned that there are still a significant number of customers experiencing issues, and that parcels operators can, and should, do more. In light of these concerns, we are considering further action to ensure customers are adequately protected, including whether strengthened regulation is needed," the release states, promising only that "we will provide further updates on this work when we publish our annual monitoring report on the postal market in December" [3]. Ofcom's policy director, Fergal Farragher, put the same point to parcel firms directly: "Companies need to put customers first and improve performance, or we will consider further measures to make sure consumers are properly protected" [3].
Credit where due
Ofcom is doing something most regulators do not: naming individual companies, with real percentages, in a report anyone can read, which is itself what makes this comparison possible. Amazon and FedEx have topped the contact satisfaction ranking for a fourth straight year running, now level at 56%, and that genuine good performance is reported with the same transparency as Evri and Yodel's [3]. The parcels sector absorbed a record 4.6 billion items without overall satisfaction collapsing, and still sits at 75%, a fall but not a crisis [3]. Yodel was also acquired by InPost in 2025, a change in ownership mid-way through the period this comparison covers, which the release itself flags rather than leaving a reader to find out separately [3].
The claims, tested
| The document's own words | What the record shows | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Ofcom's 2025 release: "Since 2023, we have seen customers' satisfaction with the process of contacting parcel operators increase from 41% to 45% in 2025, while complaints handling satisfaction increased from 43% to 46% during the same period" [2] | Ofcom's 2026 release, the next edition of the same annual series: "average satisfaction with contact across all operators has fallen this year from 47% to 43%" [3] | The improvement Ofcom credited to its own 2023 rules a year ago has reversed on Ofcom's own newest figures |
| Ofcom's 2022 notice: "If we do not see substantial improvements in customer service and complaints handling as a result of these changes, we will consider enforcement action or further regulation" [1] | Evri and Yodel have been named Ofcom's worst performers on contact satisfaction for four consecutive annual surveys, including both years since this test was set, with both now scoring lower than a year earlier [2] [3] | The named repeat performers have gotten worse, not better, since the test was set, and Ofcom's response is still that it is "considering" action, with no stated figure for what "substantial" ever meant |
| Ofcom's 2022 notice: a new requirement for parcel firms to establish policies for "the fair treatment of disabled customers", effective 1 November 2023 [1] | Disabled customers were 8 points more likely than other customers to encounter delivery difficulties in 2025 (73% against 65%) and are still roughly 8 points more likely in 2026 (76% against 68%), the only two years of data published under the new rule [2] [3] | The specific gap the rule was written to close has not narrowed in either year of data published since it took effect |
Verdict
Ofcom set its own test in 2022 and reported, in good faith, that the test was being met in 2025. Its own fourth survey now shows that was premature: the figure it pointed to has fallen, the two firms it has named worst every year since the rules began are still worst and slightly worse, and the disabled customer gap the rules specifically targeted is exactly the size it was two years ago. None of that automatically means enforcement action is owed. It does mean the 2022 promise has now had a genuine chance to be tested against a reversal, not just an improvement, and Ofcom's public answer has not moved past "considering".
The star score counts three documented mistakes: the satisfaction measure Ofcom's 2025 release credited to its 2023 rules has reversed in Ofcom's own 2026 figures, from 47% to 43%, rather than continuing to improve; Evri and Yodel have been named Ofcom's worst performers for a fourth consecutive year, both scoring lower than a year earlier, without Ofcom ever defining what "substantial" improvement would have looked like under its own 2022 test, or taking the enforcement action or further regulation that test named as the consequence; and the disabled customer delivery-difficulty gap, the second specific target of the 2023 rules, has not narrowed in either year of data Ofcom has published since the rule took effect, standing at roughly 8 points in both 2025 and 2026. This piece makes no finding against any named individual; Fergal Farragher is quoted only in his capacity as Ofcom's Policy Director, speaking for the regulator. Comparing a regulator's own survey years against each other is ordinary scrutiny, not a finding of bad faith by Ofcom, nor a finding of wrongdoing by any named company. All three sources were fetched directly on 2 November 2026 and returned HTTP 200.
Sources
- Stronger protections and fairer treatment for parcel customers, Ofcom, published 18 July 2022, last updated 7 December 2023
- Best and worst parcel firms for customer satisfaction revealed, Ofcom, published 22 October 2025
- Ofcom demands improvements from parcel firms as satisfaction declines, Ofcom, published 27 October 2026