Royal Mail has been marred by service delays in recent days thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, with some areas being listed as ‘blackspots’. At present, 28 areas are suffering from limited delivery services as the workforce has been affected by the pandemic.
People living in areas such as Daventry, Barnsley, Leeds, Margate and large parts of London – including Highbury, Wandsworth and Hornsey – are currently receiving limited deliveries, with some individuals saying they have not received post since the middle of December.
Royal Mail issued a statement regarding the outage: “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.”
It has also sparked fears people could be missing their vaccination appointments, which can arrive from the NHS via post.
Ilford MP Wes Streeting, who’s constituency is affected by the delays, tweeted: “More than half a million letters inviting people to be vaccinated will be sent in the coming days.
How long does it take to deliver second class post?
Second class post usually takes two to three working days to be delivered.
Post is delivered by Royal Mail every day aside from Sunday.
It costs 66p per stamp to send letters up to 100g, and 96p to send a large letter up to the same weight.
Small parcels start at £3.20, while medium parcels begin at £5.30.
