Delays in Royal Mail deliveries are ‘unavoidable’

Royal Mail has acknowledged that some customers may experience “slightly longer delivery timescales” than normal, after confirming exceptionally high volumes of post this winter.

Anti-COVID measures are also impacting efficiency of deliveries, said the company.

The acknowledgement comes as people and businesses across the UK have complained about late or missed deliveries.

John Lewis, Boots and HMV are among the retailers to have blamed Royal Mail for delivery delays.

Online shoppers have expressed their frustration with Royal Mail, messaging the company directly and contacting retailers over missed deliveries and late arrivals.

Speaking to the BBC, small business owners expressed sympathy for Royal Mail, but were also concerned over the impact late deliveries will have on already fragile businesses.

The postal firm stated that the “greatly increased uptake on online Christmas shopping” this year has been driven in no small part by the lockdown across the country. Because of this, delivery companies have experienced “exceptionally high volumes” of post, it said.

Coronavirus-related absences from the workforce have also impacted Royal Mail services. The postal group hired 33,000 temporary workers to support the 115,000 permanent postmen and women this season.

“Despite our best efforts, exhaustive planning and significant investment in extra resources, some customers may experience slightly longer delivery timescales than our usual service standards,” the company said.

“This is due to the exceptionally high volumes we are seeing, exacerbated by coronavirus-related measures we have in place in mail centres and delivery offices. In such cases, we always work hard to get back to providing our usual level of service as quickly as we can.” Anyone concerned about a package delivery or potential later delivery times on parcels should visit the service update page on the Royal Mail website.