Royal Mail Adding Six Sorting Centers and 23,000 Seasonal Workers

UK’s Royal Mail plans to open six temporary parcel sort centers for the holiday season to manage the influx of parcels. Last year, Royal Mail handled around 149 million parcels during the Christmas rush.

Royal Mail set the temporary parcel sort centers up to sort a significant portion of the seasonal parcels the mail service handles. This is the eighth year Royal Mail is adding temporary sorting centers for processing the increased holiday season volume.

The parcel sort centers are in in Atherstone in Warwickshire; Bathgate, West Lothian; Cardiff; Wakefield, West Yorkshire;  Skelmersdale, West Lancashire and Greenford in west London.

Around 2,700 seasonal workers will support Royal Mail’s 120,000 postmen and women in the temporary centers.

They are part of the nearly 23,000 seasonal workers across its operations Royal Mail plans to hire this year to manage the busy shipping season.

Many UK Consumers Buy Regularly From Outside the Country

With significant interest by UK shoppers to purchase goods from outside the UK, Royal Mail is one of the least expensive and trusted shipping service to send parcels to British consumers.

READ MORE: Report Says 34% of UK Shoppers Regularly Buy From Abroad

This provides an opportunity for U.S. and other foreign sellers to capitalize on an English speaking and eCommerce affluent market.

While UPS, FedEx, DHL, and other couriers have significant operations in the UK, the mail service is still the most popular among small business sellers.

The investment in temporary sorting centers and hiring seasonal workers will benefit international sellers. They can feel comfortable that their shipments will be sorted and delivered expeditiously to their UK customers.

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Richard Meldner

Richard is co-founder of eSeller365. He has over 17 years of experience on eBay which includes tens of thousands of sales to buyers in over 100 countries and even has experience with eBay’s VeRO program enforcing intellectual property rights for a former employer. And for about two years Richard sold products on Amazon using Amazon FBA in the US.

To “relax” from the daily business grind, for a few weekends a year, he also works for IMSA as a professional race official.