Royal Mail increases recruitment in Kent to improve deliveries

Royal Mail has assured households in Kent that delivery targets will be improved after a widespread recruitment drive in the run-up to Christmas.

In July, Ofcom announced small changes to its targets for first-class mail from 93% to 90% delivered next-day, and for second-class mail from 98.5% to 95% delivered within three days.

Recent statistics show Tonbridge (67.2%) and Maidstone (63.3%) postcodes saw slight declines in deliveries within those timeframes compared to the previous year, whereas Canterbury (75%) and Dartford (66.6%) saw improvements.

Royal Mail said it had recruited hundreds of permament and temporary staff to address the issue.

Jay Brooks, operations director for the South East, said: “We’ve taken on over 900 permanent employees over the past three months, as well as 500 seasonal mail operatives, plus we will continue to recruit into the new year.”

The move comes after local MPs wrote to the chief executive of Ofcom, Dame Melanie Henrietta Dawes, in the summer addressing constituents’ concerns the TN postcode was “one of the worst-performing regions” in England.

Tunbridge Wells MP Mike Martin, Sevenoaks MP Laura Trott, and Tonbridge and Malling MP Tom Tugendhat also noted in their letter that constituents often had to wait more than two weeks for important documents to be delivered after a mail pilot began at the Royal Mail Tonbridge delivery office in the summer.

However, Mr Brooks believes these problems have now been solved with the recruitment drive.

He said: “This is already bearing fruit in offices like Tonbridge, which has had over 40 new starters alone and has seen recent improvements in quality of service.”

Kent’s largest mail centre is the 35,000 sq ft Royal Mail warehouse on the banks of the River Medway.

Plant manager Tom Bailey said it was gearing up for its busiest time of the year.

“We’re expecting 10 to 12 million items through the building this week with perhaps two and a half million items on our busiest day,” he told the BBC.

Mr Bailey said many of the the new starters lived nearby and already had close links to the postal service.

“We employ lots of people as seasonal hires through our friends and family scheme so they know the local area and are very familiar with where the mail goes,” he said.

The last posting dates for Christmas are Wednesday, 17 December for second-class post and Saturday, 20 December for first-class.