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Royal Mail Is Swamped By Millions More Parcels This Year

Royal Mail Is Swamped By Millions More Parcels This Year

Sorting offices have been inundated with packages this Christmas

Rebecca Shepherd

Rebecca Shepherd

Thousands of presents are stacking up in Royal Mail sorting offices as millions more packages and presents are being sent around the country this Christmas.

Despite being allowed to mix three households, the coronavirus pandemic has put Christmas on hold for many families around the UK meaning that gift exchanges are being fuelled by postmen and women.

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This has meant that sorting offices far and wide have been inundated with parcels in Christmas delivery chaos.

It has been estimated that there are around 200 million more packages in the postal and courier system this year with the MailOnline reporting that online orders are expected to be up by more than 50 percent.

To help with the increased demand, The Royal Mail has hired 33,000 new members of staff on temporary contracts.

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Customers have been complaining about items arriving late. Shops such as John Lewis, Boots and HMV have blamed Royal Mail for delays in deliveries.

Terry Pullinger, of the Communication Workers Union, told the MailOnline: "We could not possibly have anticipated this level of packets and parcels, it seems to be intensifying every day.

"That coupled with the arrangements that are going to be in place to keep key workers safe because of Covid, and the rising spread of Covid, is complicating what is already a strategic nightmare."

Ian Trehearne, branch secretary for Gloucestershire, added that sorting offices have been 'flooded' and have been 'under the cosh' without let up since April.

A Royal Mail spokesperson told LADbible: "We continue to focus on delivering all Christmas mail as quickly and as reliably as we can. We anticipate we will deliver more UK parcels in these three and a half weeks than some of our competitors typically handle in an entire year.

"We are very sorry if any of our customers have experienced an extended delivery time. Our amazing postmen and postwomen, who have kept the UK connected throughout the pandemic and two lockdowns, are now doing everything that's needed to get mail to customers ahead of Christmas.

"We always endeavour to keep our customers as informed as we can of any changes to our services. We have a dedicated section on our website https://www.royalmail.com/coronavirus."

Featured Image Credit: Twitter

Topics: UK News, News, UK, Royal Mail