Royal Mail give temporary jobs boost
More than 600 Christmas staff have been hired by the Royal Mail in Birmingham to handle up to four million items a day.
The army of temporary recruits has been put in place as staff across the Birmingham postcode district process around 24.5 million items in the countdown to Christmas. Meanwhile, a total of 1.5 million parcels will pass through the West Midlands this week alone as volumes soar by almost 20 per cent in the last few days before Christmas.
A Birmingham Royal Mail spokesman said: ‘We expect to handle around 24.5 million items during our busiest week, with over four million on the busiest day.
‘During a normal week we handle around 16 million letters and packets.
‘Additionally, we recruit around 600 temporary staff to assist throughout the operation during the Christmas period.
‘We have a fleet of 474 vehicles and will hire an additional 47 to help carry the extra Christmas mail.’
The spokesman said extra staff were also being recruited to supplement the 310-strong workforce at Parcelforce’s national hub at Middlemarch Business Park, Coventry.
‘The hub has an extensive fleet of around 500 vehicles and trailers and at Christmas we hire an additional 70 to help with the extra workload.’
