- 7 December 2021
- Transport / Logistics Services
The CEO of Royal Mail has made an urgent call for leased vans to help meet the volumes of mail and parcels coming through the network.
Simon Thompson released a video to his employees on the internal IT system where he said, “Hi team, sorry to get you so late on a Friday evening but I wanted to share something with you about delivery vans. I don’t think we’ve got this right. I think you’re short. And I’ve been hearing the feedback now for too long and it’s now time to act.
“So what we’re going to do from Monday morning is we’re going to make sure that you – at a local level in all of the delivery offices – can decide exactly what you want and you can go and source what you want locally.”
Royal Mail already has the largest van delivery fleet in the UK, including 40,000 red liveried vans. Staff will how hunt for local vehicles to lease to help meet demand, with many pointing out that due to overall demand in the industry, could come for high lease prices.
Thompson added, “You are going to decide what you need – you are going to be able to source them locally and we’re going to give you a process that’s super easy. So team, that I believe will help ensure that we can deliver a really great Christmas for our customers.”
When contacted for comment on the matter, a Royal Mail spokeswoman said, “Christmas is our busiest time of year and we start planning for the following year while most people are still taking down their decorations.
We have invested in thousands of extra vans and around 20,000 temporary workers to help deliver the festive mailbag, and this week we have also given local managers more freedom to hire additional vans if needed to ensure we can deliver a great Christmas for the nation.”
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