Royal Mail’s “ongoing investment in automation” is helping it to modernise

Royal Mail will install another three new high-speed Parcel Sortation Machines (PSMs) in its mail centres this year, as part of its continued drive to improve efficiency and meet growing demand for next day deliveries.

The latest PSMs will be installed in Royal Mail’s Leeds, Plymouth and Exeter mail centres, each one increasing processing capabilities by 21,000 parcels per hour. Leeds’ second PSM will go live in August, followed by the first PSMs for Plymouth in September and Exeter in October.

Over the last eight years, Royal Mail has successfully rolled out 36 PSMs in 28 mail centres across the UK.

A PSM is an intelligent system of conveyor belts and scanning technology that automatically sorts parcels more quickly than manual sorting.

Neil Chaplain, Engineering and Process Design Director, Royal Mail, said: “Royal Mail’s ongoing investment in automation is helping us to modernise and significantly improve efficiency. The rollout of these new PSMs will help us to meet the increasing consumer demand for next-day parcel delivery and will help contribute to our efforts to provide a consistently reliable service.”