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.
