Christmas is a busy time of year for everyone, whether it is parents trying to find their child that perfect gift, or sales assistants struggling to keep up with increased demands on their time, in commercial properties around the holiday period. However, it is those in the postal service that arguably have the most difficult time around Christmas, with the Post Office Limited taking on additional staff and working extra hours to try and ensure all Christmas post arrives at its destination before the big day.
Traditionally, the Post Office hires around 18,000 casual staff, who are employed from November to early January in the mail and distributions operations. This is to ensure maximum efficiency at a time of year where the majority of the country is calling upon the services of the postal staff. In 2010, 70,000 people applied for this temporary work; but by 2011 that figure had jumped to more than 110,000, clearly demonstrating the impact unemployment is having on the people of this country.
This year, Royal Mail’s predicted busiest day of the year, the 12th December, saw an estimated 131 million items posted, which is double the usual amount of preceding years. The reason for the extraordinarily high volume of packages, according to a Royal Mail spokesman, is the increasing popularity of online shopping, meaning some gifts are posted twice, once to the givers and then again to the recipients.
Bearing this in mind, a computer glitch that hit on that day was bad news for all concerned. Royal Mail also revealed that computer problems had affected their services during the previous week. In the time following the computer error being detected and repaired, they apologised profusely and admitted that the glitch had caused some customers to be charged twice for their postal services.
“We are very sorry for the inconvenience this problem has caused customers,” said Kevin Gilliland, the Post Office’s network and sales director.
“We know how important the Post Office is to our customers at all times, but especially at Christmas.”
Pensioners who had their benefits paid into a Post Office card account were affected, with some being denied access to their money. A Post Office spokesman admitted that the glitch had caused a lot of problems for the business, affecting most services in the individual commercial properties which were hit.
Andy Burrows, from Consumer Focus, a government-backed watchdog, said “People rely on the Post Office not just for mail services but also to access cash and much needed pensions and benefits. We will be taking up our concerns with Post Office Limited as a priority.”
In recent years, the Post Office has seen a loss of volume in Christmas cards, due to renewed worldwide concern regarding the environment. Instead of purchasing the traditional paper cards, which some argue contribute to illegal felling of trees in the rainforest, many environmentally minded people have been sending e-cards instead. Perhaps one day the e-mail will surpass the conventional Christmas card as the dominant form of season’s greeting, leading all at the Post Office to breathe a sigh of relief.
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