THE Liberal Democrat MP for Bath, Wera Hobhouse, visited the city’s delivery office to meet postal workers and learn about the hard work involved in delivering mail and parcels during the Christmas period.

On Friday, December 6, she visited the depot to find out more about what it takes to deliver letters and parcels during Royal Mail’s busiest period, which sees around double the normal volume of mail processed.

She spoke with lead customer operations manager, Matthew Newman, about Royal Mail’s strategy to make sending and receiving parcels as convenient as possible over the festive period by offering more choices.

This includes services like Parcel Collect, where posties pick up parcels from customers at the doorstep, and offering more ways to drop off parcels at convenient times and locations. Royal Mail has already rolled out more than 5,000 parcel points this year, including at Collect+ stores and its growing number of parcel lockers. Black Friday only adds to the volumes at this time of year, Bath delivery office delivered around 860,000 items in the last week alone!

Royal Mail prepares all year to deliver Christmas. Across the UK, the business has recruited 16,000 temporary workers to help its 85,000 posties sort the additional mail and increasing number of parcels expected over the festive period. Almost 4,000 new vans, trucks and trailers are being added to the fleet in time for Christmas.

Royal Mail’s efforts ensure timely deliveries across the community, supporting both residents and businesses during the busy festive period. The team’s work plays a crucial role in maintaining service levels throughout the season.

Me Newman, lead customer operations manager for Bath, said: “It was great to have Wera visit our delivery office, and to show her how we are gearing up for our peak period. We are pulling out all the stops to deliver Christmas for our customers. My team is working incredibly hard to deliver the best service possible. They always promote the business values of being brilliant, positive and part of an amazing team.”

Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Bath, said: “Royal Mail is an iconic part of Christmas in the UK – it wouldn’t be the same without our posties. It was fantastic to see how the operation works on the inside. Thank you to Matthew and all the posties for their incredible hard work.”