Royal Mail stated there are ‘exceptionally excessive volumes of put up’ this yr (Image: PA)
Customers are dealing with delays to the supply of their Christmas presents this yr as Royal Mail has been hit by enormous demand.
The postal service stated there are at present delays to its companies because of ‘exceptionally excessive volumes of put up’ as extra individuals transfer to on-line buying amid the coronavirus pandemic.
It additionally stated social distancing measures in its mail centres and supply places of work had been additionally inflicting additional delays.
In an announcement, Royal Mail stated there had been a ‘vastly elevated uptake of on-line Christmas buying’ pushed ‘in no small half’ by the lockdown.
‘Regardless of our greatest efforts, exhaustive planning and vital funding in further sources, some prospects might expertise barely longer supply timescales than our common service requirements,’ the corporate wrote.
‘That is as a result of exceptionally excessive volumes we’re seeing, exacerbated by the coronavirus-related measures we’ve put in place in native mail centres and supply places of work.
‘In such circumstances, we at all times work arduous to get again to offering our common degree of service as rapidly as we are able to.’
The shift to on-line buying means there are 200 million extra parcels within the postal system this yr.
There are round 200 million extra parcels to be delivered this Christmas (Image: PA)
On-line orders are additionally anticipated to be up by greater than 50% this yr after the closure of non-essential outlets in the course of the second nationwide lockdown noticed many individuals flip to web sites as an alternative.
Royal Mail has taken on 33,000 seasonal staff, whereas Amazon UK has recruited 20,000 employees, Hermes 13,000 and Yodel, 3,000 – however it’s thought this can nonetheless not be sufficient to deal with the additional demand.
A lot of retailers have introduced ahead their final order date earlier than Christmas consequently, to assist cut back the chance presents is not going to arrive in time.
John Lewis, Boots and HMV have blamed Royal Mail for supply delays, and a few deliveries that ought to have taken not more than two days have been delayed by greater than per week.
Some web shoppers have been contacting Royal Mail on Twitter to complain about their parcels failing to reach on time.
However others expressed sympathy for the employees having to fulfill a surge in demand in the course of the pandemic.
One Twitter consumer stated monitoring info for his or her supply had not been up to date since December 1.
They tweeted: ‘Nonetheless making an attempt to get by way of on the telephones. Seven days in a row now… I simply need to know the place my parcel is.’
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