Royal Mail: We are pulling out all the stops to deliver Christmas
Royal Mail is gearing up for its seasonal drive to deliver Christmas for its customers, recruiting an army of 16,000 temporary workers to help its 110,000 posties sort the mail, as well as the increasing number of online shopping parcels the company expects to process over the festive period.
Christmas is Royal Mail’s busiest period, with around double the normal volumes of parcels, and stamped letters processed.
The company has 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.
A total 176,500 sqm of extra temporary space has been created across five seasonal parcel sort centres located in Atherstone, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Daventry, and Greenford in London.
The temporary positions will be located in 37 mail centres across the country, with a variety of shifts available. Contracts will run from late October through to early January 2024. The period for the additional temporary work includes Black Friday and Cyber Monday but will be at its peak in December.
The company’s two new automated Super Hubs, based in Daventry and Warrington, will be hiring up to 600 additional staff as they expect two million parcels per day to be processed across both sites.
Parcelforce Worldwide is also recruiting additional drivers and indoor workers.
Grant McPherson, Chief Operating Officer Royal Mail said: “We are pulling out all the stops to deliver Christmas. It’s our busiest time of the year and we know how important it is to deliver on time for our customers. By planning ahead, hiring more people, vans and trucks, we are well-prepared to handle the increase in festive mail and parcels and deliver the high standards of service our customers expect from Royal Mail.
“To protect quality of service, we are currently finalising capacity with our existing customers and will be considering any new requests very carefully. Any new or existing customers looking to request additional volume should speak to us now to ensure we can accommodate their requirements.”
