Royal Mail “making significant investments” to help ensure every parcel arrives in time for Christmas

The roles offer competitive pay, industry-leading terms and conditions, and the opportunity for longer-term employment, with seasonal positions often acting as a pathway to a permanent career at Royal Mail.

There are 12,500 mail sorting roles available in England, 1,243 in Scotland, 485 in Northern Ireland and 355 in Wales.

There are also 5,000 delivery and collection roles available across the country and 2,100 temporary truck driver roles.

The temporary positions will be located in two parcel super hubs in Warrington and Daventry, five seasonal parcel sort centres, four parcel hubs and 37 mail centres across the country, with a variety of shifts available.

A total 152,300 sqm of extra temporary space – equivalent to almost 22 football pitches – has been created across the five seasonal parcel sort centres located in, Atherstone, Stoke-on-Trent, Milton Keynes, Northampton and Daventry.

The four parcel hubs are based in Stonebridge Park, London, Wishaw, Scotland, Severn Beach, Bristol, and Wakefield, Yorkshire.

The seasonal recruits will help sort the growing number of online shopping orders expected before they are taken to Royal Mail’s 1,200 Delivery Offices.

Royal Mail Chief Operating Officer, Jamie Stephenson, said: “Christmas is the busiest and most important time of the year for our customers, and we’re working hard across every part of our operation to deliver for them. While many people start thinking about Christmas as the festive season approaches, we’ve been planning for it since January. From recruiting thousands of seasonal colleagues to strengthening capacity across our network, we’re making significant investments to help ensure every card, gift and parcel arrives in time for Christmas.”

The seasonal roles will run from late October through to early January 2027. The period for the additional temporary work includes Black Friday and Cyber Monday but will be at its peak in December. Parcelforce Worldwide is also recruiting additional drivers and indoor workers.

The company is encouraging applications from people looking to earn extra income for the festive season, inviting them to come and join the Royal Mail teams across the UK delivering Christmas to its customers. No previous experience is required, and shift working is available.

Royal Mail particularly welcomes applications from people aged under 25, including those with no experience, after becoming one of the first major employers in the UK to sign up to the Government’s First Chance campaign this week to create more opportunities for young people to get their first step into work.

Delivering Christmas

Royal Mail has been preparing for months to deliver a bumper Christmas.

The company will be adding to the fleet of 6000 vehicles (including 9,000 EVs) with an additional 7500 hire vans to support this year’s seasonal campaign. In addition, over 1400 road haulage contractors per day are being hired to transport the festive mail and parcels across the country.

Royal Mail has the biggest network of parcel points to make it as convenient as possible for customers to collect, send and return parcels. There are around 30,000 locations including 3,300 lockers, 8,500 Royal Mail Shops, 11,500 Post Office branches and 1,200 Royal Mail Customer Service Points.

Royal Mail has also made it easier to use its 115,000 postboxes to send smaller parcels that will fit through a letterbox, enabling customers to request proof of posting using the Royal Mail app, and have rolled out 3,500 postboxes of the future designed to accept larger parcels up to the size of a shoebox.