Inverness Mail Centre hailed as first class

Around 2.4 million items of post pass through Inverness every week.

Rumours of the demise of so-called snail mail have been greatly exaggerated as the impact and influence of technology on people’s lives – especially shopping habits – have made the postal system a crucial part of society.

Staff in the high tech Inverness Mail Centre in Seafield Road – new home of Royal Mail’s Inverness sorting office which vacated properties in Strothers Lane and Railway Terrace – represents an investment of £6.6 million.

Royal Mail needed to make the move because previously there was not enough room for the automated sorting machines which have now been installed into the new mail centre’s 3629 square metres of operational floor space.

There are a total of 220 members of delivery and distribution staff employed at the site which is the last centre in the UK to be fully automated and handles deliveries going out to addresses over an area covering 12,500 square miles.

David Noble, the Inverness plant manager, said the facility also had a delivery office attached and allowed for aviation screening for items which are transported by air.

“If you compare the space, this is four times the size of what we had previously,” he said.

Out of the 2.4 million items coming into the sorting office every week, there will be 650,000 inward letters, as well as 100,000 inward special delivery items. Mr Noble said parcels have represented a huge growth for the business with the rise in online shopping.

“The postie used to go out with a bag of mail – now they go out with a van full of mail,” he said.

Mr Noble is celebrating 35 years with Royal Mail, after starting when he left school. He said: “You find people have been here a long time – it is a good employer and there are lots of opportunities. There are lots of career paths you can try.”