“I've never seen so much volume whilst working for Royal Mail in nearly 20 years.”; Readers share their thoughts on pre-Christmas delivery delays

With an increased reliance on delivery services like the Royal Mail is it possible to keep up with demand?
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For the people who work in delivery services, such as the Royal Mail and other courier services, it’s been an incredibly overwhelming year, full stop. And that’s without considering the impact of Covid-19, EU transition issues, reduced staffing, and other issues. For emphasis, you need only take a moment to watch the video that showed how full just one sorting office was. We asked our readers whether they’d experienced any delays in deliveries in the run-up to Christmas.

This is what they had to say:

Rachael Knott said: “Our posties have been fantastic all year . They have taken on so much more than they usually have to and have provided us with an amazing service. I for one would be understanding if my post was a little late at this time (it hasn’t been). All I can say is “thank you” for a much needed great service”, with plenty of love heart emojis.

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Richard Michael feels that delivery services had excelled, saying: “Not at all. In fact a lot of things I ordered not expecting or needing them to come before Christmas have already arrived early. It’s possible some of these delays are actually with the companies and sellers struggling to dispatch, and not just the postal service. The postal delivery staff around here couldn’t be better, they work tirelessly to deliver our post and always with a smile!”

Sara Louise Cowley had zero issues and nothing but gratitude.

She said: “Thankfully I managed to get all my Christmas stuff ordered and delivered, last of which came today, all I can say is thank you to royal mail for always striving to make sure everyone has their post/parcels, and if people didn't leave things to be posted so late it might have arrived in time.”

Marc Williams is a postal worker who described the task at hand: “I'm a postie, I'm really sorry if uve been affected by missing parcels and letters. I've never seen so much volume whilst working for royal mail in nearly 20 years. We just cant get through it”

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Christine Rowland was adamant things have been great, saying: “Not at all we’ve had some amazing service with some second class parcels arriving in just 2-3 days!”

Janice Bennett put things in perspective with some (much-needed) Christmas spirit: “Our postie has worked day in day out he arrived today soaking wet...we gve him a Christmas present...he was so appreciative...think of the positive Sheffield Star and it's no ones fault except COVID ....keep going all”

There were some who hadn’t had great experiences, claiming delays had impacted their business, but the majority empathised especially in such unprecedented times. Elizabeth Gethin also experienced delays but she doesn’t mind: “I've had stuff delayed but Royal Mail have been inundated with massive workloads and have done their best. Took 3 weeks for a card to arrive in Sheffield from Dorset. We owe our posties a lot.”

Jax Allott puts it in the most succinct way, saying: “I feel so sorry for the posties!! I’m still waiting for things but it is what it is. Merry Christmas to all the posties and delivery people who have done their best.”

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