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Service Update
Tuesday 12 January 2021
Deliveries and collections should take place across the UK today.
Royal Mail is working hard to deliver the most comprehensive and high quality service we can to all our customers, large and small. The combination of greatly increased uptake of online shopping, and the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, mean that all delivery companies are experiencing exceptionally high volumes.
Every single parcel and letter is important to us. Despite our best efforts and significant investment in extra resource, some customers may experience slightly longer delivery timescales than our usual service standards. This is due to the exceptionally high volumes we are seeing, exacerbated by the coronavirus-related measures we have put in place in local mail centres and delivery offices to keep our people and customers safe. In such cases, we always work hard to get back to providing our usual level of service as quickly as we can. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Royal Mail Distribution and Processing Report
Royal Mail Distribution
Royal Mail operates an overnight air, rail and road network to move letters and parcels between our distribution hubs, mail processing centres and delivery offices around the UK.
Air
Our air services operated to schedule last night with two exceptions: Technical issues delayed the departure of the flight from Edinburgh airport to East Midlands airport. As a result, some mail posted yesterday in Central and Southern Scotland, due for delivery today in the Midlands, South West, North of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, may arrive later than planned. This delay also impacted the depature of the flight from the East Midlands airport to Exeter airport. As a result, some mail posted yesterday in the Midlands, North of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, due for delivery today in the far South West of England may arrive later than expected.
Rail
There were no significant delays on our rail services last night.
Road
There were no significant delays on our road network last night.
The mail centres below have reported not all mail was processed to schedule last night, and as a result may arrive later than expected:
- Northern Ireland Mail Centre: Some mail posted in other parts of the UK yesterday, due for delivery today to addresses in the BT postcode area.
- Chester Mail Centre: Some mail posted in the CH, LL and SY postcode areas yesterday, due for delivery today to addresses across the rest of the UK.
Royal Mail Deliveries
Due to resourcing issues, deliveries in the following areas are likely to be limited. If you need to collect an item for which we've left a 'Something for you' card from the Customer Service Points at one of these offices, please check royalmail.com/services-near-you for details of our revised opening hours. If we’ve not left a ‘Something for you card’, and you do not have alternative arrangements in place, we’re sorry that your mail will not be available for collection.
- Ashford (TN23-TN27)
- Basildon (SS13-SS16)
- Bury St Edmunds (IP28-IP33)
- Chelmsford (CM1-CM3)
- Daventry (NN11)
- Debden (IG7-IG10)
- Enfield (EN1-EN3)
- Hampton (TW12)
- Highbury (N5)
- Horsham (RH12, RH13)
- Ilford (IG1-IG6)
- Leeds City (LS1-LS5)
- Lewisham (SE13)
- Magherafelt (BT45, BT46)
- Margate (CT7-CT9)
- Rugeley (WS15)
- Somerton (TA11)
- South Ockendon (RM15)
- South Woodford (E18)
- Upper Holloway (N7)
- Widnes (WA8)
Changes to Special Delivery Guaranteed - Updated 29/12/20
From Thursday 24 December we reinstated our temporary timed guarantees for our Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9am and 1pm services.
- For items posted from Thursday 24 December 2020 onwards, our guaranteed delivery for Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9am the next working day will be by 11.00am the next working day*
- Our guaranteed delivery for Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1pm the next working day will be by 4.00pm the next working day*.
- This includes items where a Saturday guarantee has been purchased.
*existing postcode exceptions apply
Find out more about previous Special Delivery Guaranteed changes.
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