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Royal Mail Unwraps Holiday Season Site

Website offers important holiday dates, tips and info for online sellers.

Royal Mail is gearing up for a busy holiday season.

The mail carrier recently unveiled its Christmas Planning website, which features a list of “last posting” dates for U.K. and international shipments, explanations about the different shipping options it offers, details of how Royal Mail will keep up with demands, plus insights about online buyers.

On the site, Royal Mail says it is “committed” to Christmas, online sellers and delivering packages on time. It adds that during the holiday season, its offices will stay open later, mail carriers will make additional pickups and deliveries on Sundays—something Royal Mail only does during the holidays—and that it will open eight dedicated hubs to sort packages.

The mail carrier is expected to hire 22,000 seasonal workers to keep up with higher-than-normal mail volumes during the holiday season.

“We’re investing in our operation to handle a festive postbag of 2 billion items,” Royal states on the site.

Last year, shoppers spent 8 billion pounds online five weeks before Christmas, and online sellers send out thousands of packages. This year, 26 percent of shoppers say they will spend more, the postal service reports.

Royal Mail adds that its Delivery to Neighbour program will be available nationwide during the holiday season, so if someone is not home when a postal worker comes by to drop off a shipment that is too big to fit into a mailbox, the mail carrier can drop off the package with a neighbor. Royal Mail adds that personnel will leave postcards at customers’ homes letting them know if they do this.


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