How coronavirus will affect postal services - your questions answered

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Royal Mail has explained what will change and what is staying the same during the Covid-19 outbreak

As residents continue to self-isolate during the Coronavirus outbreak, many are wondering whether the services they rely on are running as usual.

Royal Mail has issued a notice to all customers regarding Post Office branches and delivery services and how they will change with the new regulations around Covid-19.

According to the notice, most Post Office branches will be open as usual and say that “alongside our postmasters and branch colleagues are doing all that we can to keep our branches open, so that we can continue to provide our products and services to you and your communities.”

The notice continued: “At the moment, the majority of our branches are open as usual and our supply chain is running as normal.

“Our priority is to keep our customers, postmasters and colleagues safe and healthy.

"We have advised everyone working in our branches to practice good hand hygiene and we ask that our customers do the same, as well as maintaining a sensible distance between other customers and our colleagues.

“We will keep you updated as the situation evolves.”

Will my mail come and arrive on time?
Royal Mail and Parcelforce worldwide will be running as normal but have put handling procedures in place for hygiene reasons

These include:

Removal of the timed guarantee to Special Delivery by 1pm items
Collection of the recipient’s signature on delivery
Services to some countries when posting items abroad
Procedures for handling post
Please consult the Royal Mail website and the Parcelforce Worldwide website for detailed information on these changes.

Can I contact the Royal Mail call centres as normal?
This is what Royal Mail said:

“Our call centres are experiencing unprecedented demand as customers have queries about coronavirus and their products.

“As a result, wait times are likely to be significantly longer than normal. However, even with colleagues working remotely, we are still able to operate our call centres.

“We do ask that you consider how urgent your query is before picking up the phone. If you are able to contact us through the channels below it may help alleviate some of the call volume we’re experiencing, which will help everyone.”