Royal Mail ‘Address Detectives’ prepare for festive postcode challenge
Royal Mail today urged people to postcode their festive greetings as 5,400 “address detectives” face up to the challenge of helping 400 million poorly addressed and written cards to their destination this Christmas,
Millions of people are expected to sit down this weekend to start writing their Christmas cards to friends and family,
Royal Mail expects to deliver more than two billion items over the festive period but estimates 400 million cards and letters will not be able to be read by its automated sorting machinery either because the postcode has not been included, the item has been poorly addressed or the handwriting style is difficult to read.
Nearly 4,200 “address detectives” have been recruited for the festive season to support the 1,200-strong team who will decipher the addresses of items that cannot be read automatically so that the letters can still be processed by the sorting machinery rather than by hand.
Alex Batchelor, Royal Mail’s Marketing Director, said: “Mail volumes almost double on peak days in December and it is important that people properly address their Christmas cards and use the postcode. Letters and cards that have clearly written addresses and a postcode can be read by our machines and handled 20 times faster than by hand.
“Photographs of items that do not go through our sorting machinery, either because they do not have a postcode, or are poorly addressed, are called up on computer screens by our address detectives who use their skills to decipher the intended location and code the envelope so that it can still be sorted automatically rather than by hand.”
He added: “Many of millions of items of mail handled by Royal Mail every year are incorrectly or poorly addressed but are still delivered to the right recipients thanks to the hard work, local knowledge and dedication of postmen and women across the UK.
“But people who take care with their addressing, and use the postcode, will help Royal Mail at its busiest time of the year.”
