Mail Reaches Festive Peak

Royal Mail in Northern Ireland has laid on four additional daily flights and boosted its normal 1,000-strong vehicle fleet with 137 extra vans and trucks to cope with the Christmas demand.

It has also provided seasonal employment to a further 340 people who are helping out with the Christmas operation.

Additionally, with an estimated 155 million items being ordered online this Christmas, Royal Mail are making it easier for people to receive the items they have ordered, if they are not at home during the day, by extending the opening hours of their main Enquiry Offices.

Customers can also arrange redeliveries of items to their home address or to a neighbour in the normal way via www.royalmail.com/redelivery or ask for items to be taken to a Post Office branch, through a service called Local Collect.

Michael Kennedy, Northern Ireland's Regional Operations Director, said: "We will be delivering to 740,000 addresses throughout Northern Ireland and are asking our customers to help ensure that all cards and parcels are delivered in good time by posting early.

"The last recommended posting dates for UK mail are Monday, 21 December for 1st Class, Friday, 18 December for 2nd Class and Wednesday, 23 December for those last minute gifts requiring Special Delivery.

"It also helps us enormously if people address their items carefully and correctly, check they've attached the right postage and use the postcode," he continued.

"We know how much our customers depend on us, especially at this time of year, and all our postmen and women will be working incredibly hard to deliver a great Christmas to homes and businesses the length and breadth of the country."

(BMcC/KMcA)