More than 2,000 Royal Mail colleagues from office-based roles will support postmen and women on their rounds during December, as the company works to meet Christmas demand.
This week is predicted to be the busiest of the year for Royal Mail, with around double the amount of both mail and parcels expected to go through the network.
Throughout the festive shopping period, from the Black Friday weekend to the final week of December, employees usually based in offices around the country will spend several days each supporting postmen and women with deliveries to help ensure the increased number of Christmas cards and online shopping parcels reach customers’ doorsteps on time.
Grant McPherson, chief operating officer Royal Mail, said: “We know how critical it is that we deliver for our customers this year and we are doing everything we can to make sure that this happens. Postmen and women up and down the country are working especially hard this festive period to deliver people’s Christmas shopping and cards and it is right that the whole company gets behind them and supports them as much as possible.”
As part of Royal Mail’s efforts to deliver over the peak period, the company has also hired 16,000 seasonal workers to help sort the mail. They are working across the country, including at five temporary parcel sorting centers located in Atherstone, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Daventry and Greenford, London measuring a total of 176,500sqm – equivalent to 16 football pitches.
The company has also increased its fleet with an additional 6,800 vehicles across the group and hired over 1,000 road haulage contractors to transport the festive mail and parcels across the country.
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