Ready to deliver festive service

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http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/3954556. ... e_service/

By Samuel Underwood »


More than 500 postal workers have been drafted in as Royal Mail braces itself for the Christmas rush.

To manage the extra ten million letters and parcels sent in the build-up to to the festive season across Sussex, an additional 510 workers have been employed in the BN and RH postcode areas.

Bumper deliveries are also planned on Sundays and in the evenings.

The BN area covers a large swathe of the Sussex coast and RH covers the north of the county and southern parts of Surrey.

In a normal month, mail to these areas totals around 53 million items but in December this soars to 62 million.

The busiest day in the Christmas period is expected to be December 15.

Normally there are 3,250 members of staff covering the two postcode areas but over Christmas the rush requires extra workers.

But as well as extra deliveries on Sunday December 21, posties will also be out in the evenings on the following two days to ensure letters are delivered on time.

Royal Mail said the steps were due to the 140 million items ordered online that will need to be delivered across Britain. Figures released by Royal Mail show 28 million people in Britain are expected to spend more than £13 billion online in the run-up to Christmas.

To cope with the deluge of parcels, delivery offices will be open for extended hours from December 15 to make it easier for people to pick up parcels and packets, including Sunday December 21.

Mark Higson, Royal Mail managing director, said: “Royal Mail is prepared for its biggest online Christmas ever and has taken steps to help people get their items as quickly as possible.

“The majority of items ordered online are delivered first time but we have put in place a package of measures to help people who are not home to receive the item, in cases where it is too big to go through the letter box or requires a signature.”