Sunderland 'Posties' gearing up for busiest time of year
Bridget Phillipson MP has visited postal workers at Houghton Delivery Office to find out more about what it takes to deliver letters and parcels in the peak Christmas period.
Christmas is Royal Mail’s busiest period, with around double the normal volume of letters and parcels processed.
Bridget spoke to Customer Operations Manager Sarah Deacon about Royal Mail’s strategy to continue to make sending and receiving parcels as convenient as possible over the festive period by adding more choice.
This includes services like Parcel Collect, where posties pick up parcels from customers at the doorstep, and offering more ways to drop off parcels at convenient times and locations.
Royal Mail has already rolled out more than 5,000 parcel points this year, including at Collect+ stores and its growing number of parcel lockers.
Royal Mail prepares all year to deliver Christmas.
Across the UK, the business has recruited 16,000 temporary workers to help its 85,000 posties sort the additional mail and increasing number of parcels expected over the festive period. Almost 4,000 new vans, trucks and trailers are being added to the fleet in time for Christmas.
Houghton-le-Spring Delivery Office has hired two extra vehicles for the Christmas period to meet increased demand for deliveries in the local area.
Sarah Deacon, Customer Operations Manager for Houghton-le-Spring, said: “It was great to have Bridget visit our Delivery Office, and to show her how we are gearing up for our peak period. We are pulling out all the stops to deliver Christmas for our customers.”
Bridget Phillipson, Member of Parliament for Houghton and Sunderland South, said: “It was a pleasure to visit Houghton Delivery Office and speak to local posties about what they do over their busiest time of the year. Thanks to the team working flat out to ensure local residents have a great Christmas.”