Royal Mail issues major delivery delay warning in 30 areas – is your postcode affected by ‘significant disruption’?
ROYAL Mail has issued an urgent delivery delay warning over 30 postcodes across the UK.
Mail centres across four regions of the country have reported "significant disruption."
It comes after a failure to process or send out mail over the weekend per the usual schedule.
Such reports have been made by mail centers in Gatwick, London Central, Manchester, Preston, and the South Midlands.
The Royal Mail said on its website: "The mail centres below reported not all mail was processed or despatched to schedule over the past weekend.
"As a result, some mail may be delivered later than planned."
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Royal Mail deliveries take place every day of the week other than Sundays.
First-class mail is delivered the day after dispatch while second-class are two days after.
However, the complex system can see delays sparked by just one aspect of the mail service experiencing problems.
This could be disruption to mail centers, air mail, road, rail, or local factors could play a role.
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According to the Royal Mail, local issues have caused disruptions to a number of delivery offices with 14 further postcodes impacted.
The winter months can often bring temporary mail disruptions due to high levels of sickness causing a surge in mail worker absences.
In such cases the Royal Mail ";will rotate deliveries to minimise the delay to individual customers," the mail service states.
"We also provide targeted support to those offices to address their challenges and restore our service to the high standard our customers would normally receive."
Currently, this situation is impacting four offices in Barrhead, Barrow In Furness, Glasgow, and Huntington.
Check the list below to see if your postcode is impacted by the disruptions:
- Gatwick, BN, and RH
- London Central, EC, N, W1 and W
- Manchester, BL, M 0L and S
- Preston, BB, FY, LA, and PR
- South Midland, CV, LE, MK, and NN
The Royal Mail states that mail posted in these areas and due for delivery today in other parts of the UK "may arrive later than planned."
The following areas are the worst impacted due to staff illness:
- Barrhead DO (G78)
- Barrow In Furness DO (LA13 to LA17)
- Bristol East DO (BS5)
- East Dulwich DO (SE22)
- Glasgow G52 DO (G52 and G53)
- Gosport DO (PO12 and PO13)
- Huntingdon DO (PE26, PE28 and PE29)
- Thornbury DO (BS35)
- Wigton DO (CA7)
All air, rail and road mail networks have "operated to schedule over the past 24 hours," the website states.
But, the Royal Mail has warned of "service disruption due to severe weather across parts of the UK."
The website states: "Following the Met Office issued Amber weather warning for snow and ice in parts of the UK on Saturday, 4 January and Sunday, 5 January 2025, the severe weather has impacted our services in some parts of the UK on Monday, 6 and Tuesday, 7 January 2025.
"The safety of our people is our priority, and we will recover our services where it is safe to do so."
Those who wish to stay up to date with Royal Mail service information can sign up to email alerts .
Other Royal Mail news
Royal Mail has urged the Government and Ofcom to review its obligations, arguing that it is no longer workable or cost-effective, given the decline in addressed letter post.
In its submission to Ofcom in April, it proposed ditching Saturday deliveries for second-class post and cutting the service to every other weekday.
Lindsey Fussell, Ofcom's group director for networks and communications, said: "If we decide to propose changes to the universal service next year, we want to make sure we achieve the best outcome for consumers.
"So we're now looking at whether we can get the universal service back on an even keel in a way that meets people’s needs.
"But this won't be a free pass for Royal Mail – under any scenario, it must invest in its network, become more efficient and improve its service levels.”
Royal Mail owner International Distribution Services (IDS), which agreed to a £3.57billion takeover by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky in May, said "change cannot come soon enough" to the UK’s postal service.
Royal Mail also ousted old-style stamps and replaced them with barcoded ones last July.
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The business said the move would make letters more secure.
Anyone who still has these old-style stamps and uses them may have to pay a surcharge.
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