Royal Mail kicks off recruitment campaign for Christmas peak

Royal Mail is set to hire 16,000 temporary workers for this year’s Christmas peak period.

Christmas is Royal Mail’s busiest period, with around double the normal volumes of parcels and stamped letters processed.

The company has increased its fleet with an additional 6,800 vehicles across the group and hired over 1,000 road haulage contractors to transport festive mail and parcels across the country.

A total of 176,500m² of extra temporary space has been created across five seasonal parcel sorting centers in Atherstone, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Daventry and Greenford.

The temporary positions will be in 37 mail centers across the country, with a variety of shifts available. Contracts will run from late October through to early January 2024. The period for the additional temporary work includes Black Friday and Cyber Monday but the peak will be December.

The company’s two new automated Super Hubs, in Daventry and Warrington, will be hiring up to 600 additional staff as they expect two million parcels per day to be processed across both sites.

Parcelforce Worldwide is also recruiting additional drivers and indoor workers.

Grant McPherson, chief operating officer of Royal Mail, said, “We are pulling out all the stops to deliver Christmas. It’s our busiest time of the year and we know how important it is to deliver on time for our customers. By planning ahead, hiring more people, vans and trucks, we are well-prepared to handle the increase in festive mail and parcels and deliver the high standards of service our customers expect from Royal Mail.

“To protect quality of service, we are currently finalizing capacity with our existing customers and will be considering any new requests very carefully. Any new or existing customers looking to request additional volume should speak to us now to ensure we can accommodate their requirements.”

For more news about peak season, please click here.