Mail staff ready for big day
WORKERS ALL SET FOR THE CHRISTMAS PERIOD RUSH
An army of Royal Mail staff are entering the crunch period of the year as the Christmas rush sets in.
Over four million items were being handled on the busiest day at its North East nerve centre, with people hoping to get those lastminute letters and gifts to their friends and family.
But what of the staff who are on the sorting office floor?
It is all in a day’s work for Paul Laidler, plant manager at Royal Mail’s Team Valley centre.
The facility, which is the size of six football pitches and is the hub for the North East, is working around the clock to get parcels, packages and other mail to their targets.
Paul said: “Today is our busiest day of the year and we will be handling 4.1million items over the course of the 24 hours.
“There are 600 staff on permanent contracts working alongside 300 temporary staff who started at the back end of November as days like Black Friday took place.”
Despite the rise of email and online shopping changing the nature of how many of us communicate as well as buy and sell items, Royal Mail remains as busy as ever during the festive season.
And the nature of technology has also meant that the traditional post-Christmas lull is no longer evident.
“Volumes historically finished on Christmas Day, but with Boxing Day being one of the biggest shopping days in the calendar, that has changed a lot so we see it carrying on into the new year,” added Paul.
“What we are moving to now is to a parcel company which integrates letters.”
Automated machines help with much of the sorting of items, with “magic eye” technology able to recognise handwritten postcodes and dispatch them accordingly.
And what is the advice for bosses to those considering whether to try and get that late gift posted? Get things posted early, wrapped up well if they are valuable and make sure they are clearly marked is the message.
“Our postal dates are very late this year, with the latest date for Second Class December 20, First Class December 21 and Special Delivery also December 21,” said Paul.
“There is also guaranteed special delivery available on December 22 and we will be opening all our delivery offices on Christmas Eve for parcels to be picked up if people haven’t had the chance to.”