Wondering where your present is? It could be at bottom of a pile like this!
As Royal Mail is swamped by millions more parcels this year...
IF YOUR Christmas presents have been rather slow to arrive, this enormous pile of parcels may explain the delay.
Thousands of presents remain buried in mountains of post bags at sorting offices, it has been revealed.
One image posted on Twitter displayed the huge pile of Royal Mail sacks in Bristol.
A second showed that sorting offices are so inundated that staff are having to stack items outside, putting parcels at risk of being damaged by rain or even stolen.
Union bosses are reporting similar scenes across the country.
A massive switch to online shopping means there are an estimated 200million more parcels in the postal and courier system this year. Online orders are expected to be up by more than 50 per cent as i nternet f estive shopping overtakes the high street for the first time.
The delays are threatening to ruin Christmas for families and businesses. Many customers have complained about items arriving late, while John Lewis, Boots and HMV have blamed Royal Mail for delivery delays. Terry Pullinger, of the Communication Workers Union, said: ‘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.’
Text accompanying the picture of the mountain of sacks, posted by a CWU official, read: ‘Our members in Royal Mail are facing unprecedented workloads. They are doing absolutely everything they can to keep the country connected.’ It added: ‘Pandemic + Christmas + record traffic.’
The union asked for sympathy for postal workers, saying serving the public was central to what they do. However, a request to ‘show them some love’ by writing positive comments did not bring the comfort and joy they were hoping for.
One person wrote: ‘Not the best photo. I wouldn’t be happy if my parcel was among that. Might show how busy it is, but what idiots thought stacking bags like that is good idea?’ A second said simply: ‘Get on with it, you slackers.’
However, one grateful Twitter user wrote: ‘I have two different posties, both unfailingly courteous and cheerful.
‘They are the backbone of a community at any time of year, but especially now at Christmas and in a pandemic.’
A postman’s wife added: ‘ My husband has been a postie for 28 years. He’s been starting at 2am instead of 6am every day for the past month, to get the backlog of parcels/ letters sorted and delivered.’
Royal Mail has taken on 33,000 seasonal workers but industry experts say this is still not enough to meet demand, and many retailers have responded by bringing forward their last order dates.
In a statement, Royal Mail said: ‘Despite our best efforts, exhaustive planning and significant investment in extra resource, some customers may experience slightly longer delivery timescales than our usual service standards.’
‘A strategic nightmare’