Nick Thomas-Symonds MP visited postal workers at Pontypool Delivery Office on Friday 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. Nick spoke to Customer Operations Manager Terry Warfield 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.

Pontypool Delivery Office has hired seven recruits and five extra vehicles for the Christmas period to meet increased demand for deliveries in the local area.

Chris Hill, Lead Customer Operations Manager for Pontypool, and Terry Warfield, Customer Operations Manager, said: “It was great to have Nick visit our Delivery Office, and to show him how we are gearing up for our peak period. We are pulling out all the stops to deliver Christmas for our customers.”

Nick Thomas-Symonds, Member of Parliament for Torfaen, said: “It was great to call in to the Pontypool Delivery Office to thank local posties for the work they do across Torfaen. Royal Mail is an iconic part of Christmas in the UK, and it wouldn’t be the same without our posties!”