With Royal Mail workers carrying on with strikes on Wednesday and Thursday, pressure continues to be mounted on its rivals to meet Christmas demand.
Couriers DPD and Evri, formerly Hermes, both blamed disruption to their services on the strikes this week, with each experiencing higher parcel volumes.
DPD has today updated that services across the country are experiencing delays of up to two days.
"As a result of the industrial action, we have seen an increase in demand for our services, as shippers seek alternatives to the Royal Mail in the UK,” outlined a company spokesperson.
"We are experiencing short delays to our next-day delivery service in a small number of locations as a result,” they added.
Meanwhile Evri suggested the cold snap, due to continue throughout this week, was making matters worse, as it updated on its own battle against delays.
It outlined that it was currently delivering over three million parcels a day, as demand ramped up due to the strikes.
Around 115,000 Royal Mail workers are set to walk out on Wednesday and Thursday, in a long-running dispute over pay, with further action planned for 23 and 24 December.
“Royal Mail has well-developed contingency plans, but we cannot fully replace the daily efforts of our frontline workforce,” the company said, after the Communication Workers Union (CWU) notified of the strikes among those who collect, sort and deliver parcels and letters.
The CWU said the company's bosses "chose to ignore a peace offer" from union representatives to tackle the postal backlog".
On Tuesday, the CWU said it offered the “simple solutions” to end the current dispute would include a back-dated pay deal of 9% over 18 months, a long-term job security commitment from Royal Mail CEOs, a pause on the "ongoing attacks" on union representatives and members, a "period of calm" for negotiations on the future direction of the company.
The union said Royal Mail made no response other than to send the union “a 1-page document, via ACAS, at 3.45pm”.
CWU added that P&FS cleaners, who work in Royal Mail building will also be striking on Thursday, spelling further woes for the formerly publicly owned company.