Bosses of Royal Mail, Britain’s biggest postal service, have warned that a combination of strict Covid regulations, self-isolating staff and an unprecedented rise in online shopping are impacting Christmas deliveries.
Royal Mail has employed around 33,000 temporary workers, in addition to its 115,000 postmen and women, but it may not be enough to get all parcels delivered on time.
The deadline for second-class Christmas deliveries this year is December 18, for first-class mail it is December 21 and for special delivery it is December 23.
Customers are being warned that delivery timescales are longer than usual and to make sure they post items – especially parcels – in good time. Many regions are also operating under reduced delivery timetables and the queues outside post offices just keep getting longer.
The situation is heaping more pressure onto retailers, who’ve already had to contend with shutting up their shops during one of their peak trading months and now have to cope with delayed and restricted delivery services.
Royal Mail commented: “Despite our best efforts, exhaustive planning and significant investment in extra resource, some customers may experience slightly longer delivery timescales than our usual service standards. This is due to the exceptionally high volumes we are seeing, exacerbated by the coronavirus-related measures we have put in place in local mail centres and delivery offices.”
The situation is even more chaotic for international shipments of Christmas presents as ports deal with massive backlogs due to Brexit stockpiling and supply chain problems caused by Covid. The hottest Christmas toys may not arrive under the tree in time, as everything from Apple airpods to game consoles get stuck in transit.
Trade body Logistics UK warns delays could last months and that Christmas presents and business supplies are being held up, whilst essential items are managing to get through.
Tim Morris, head of the Major Ports Group, said: “There’s certainly an interest in making sure that things like medicines move through what’s called the so-called tier one goods. But after that, then a box is a box is a box.
On the matter of items which are topping Santa’s wish-list, Mr Morris added: “There is a certain amount of pre-stocking that’s gone on but what is probably more difficult to do at this point is to respond to any last-minute surges in popularity.”
A rise in shipping costs is also likely to reach consumers, with the price of a container travelling to the UK from Asia more than doubling since spring to $3,500. Container prices to take goods from China to the US east coast have also hit a record high of almost $5,000. The delays at western ports are in turn knocking on back to China, where manufactures are also facing a shortage of containers stuck in places like Felixstowe.
If ever there was a time to really shop local, this is it.
