Island businesses forced to ‘plan around’ unreliable postal service

He said the pressures on the firm – Sheila Fleet Jewellery – were sharpest at peak times.

“Birthdays, anniversaries and Christmas in particular,” he said. “You can’t really move Christmas, so you’ve got to make sure you make those deadlines.”

Both business owners praised local postal workers, putting the blame on the wider system.

“That’s not the fault of the postal workers, who work extremely hard,” Garrick-Wright said. “But structurally there’s huge issues that aren’t being addressed.”

Consumer Scotland’s Tracey Reilly said islanders were “very realistic” about what to expect but were being let down by gaps in regulation.

She said the watchdog had heard of hospital letters arriving after appointments had taken place, and prescriptions being delayed.

“Every area in Scotland has a postcode-based delivery target, and those are set and enforced by Ofcom,” she said. “But the island communities are actually exempt from those targets.

“We’d like to see them brought within the overall regime. It doesn’t have to be the same target but we want some guaranteed minimum level of service, because we think that’s only fair.”

Consumer Scotland’s research found 18% of people across Scotland had encountered delivery surcharges, but that rose to 75% of people in the Highlands & Islands.

“For consumers, it can really increase the cost of living – sometimes the cost of delivery is actually more than it costs to purchase the item,” Riley said.

The report makes eight recommendations including transparent and potentially capped surcharges, clearer delivery information for shoppers, and minimum service standards for island postcode areas.