Special deliveries on the increase

The volume of items sent annually through the post soared by five billion over the past decade, Royal Mail has said.

Alcohol and food was one of the fastest-growing sectors, with deliveries more than quadrupling between 1995 and 2005.

An upturn in home shopping meant clothing and shoe deliveries more than trebled over the 10-year period.

Royal Mail said its Life Through The Letterbox study gave a unique insight into Britain’s changing consumer habits.

Its data comes from “mail diaries” kept by 100,000 households over the course of a decade.

Royal Mail said it delivered 22 billion items of post last year compared to 17 billion in 1995.

Travel and holiday-related post increased from 103 million to 183.5 million over that same period.

And the volume of credit, bank and store cards hitting householders’ doormats nearly doubled to 182 million by 2005.

Hand-written mail also enjoyed a boost, driven by the popularity of birthday and other greeting cards.

Royal Mail spokesman James Eadie said: “Clearly there is an increase in things that people are buying from home, whether that is via the internet or catalogue.

“Certain sectors show that people are maybe more indulgent than they were a decade ago.”

Items of post related to savings and investments rose by 243 million to 353 million over the decade.

The study was carried out for Royal Mail by researchers at TNSofres.