Royal Mail PLC (LON:RMG) is looking to hire a record number of 33,000 temporary seasonal workers to cover the Christmas rush as the coronavirus pandemic drives a surge in online shopping.
The letter and parcel carrier usually employs around 15,000-23,000 extra staff over the holiday season between October and January, however pandemic-related restrictions on movement as well as the escalating number of online orders means it needs even more workers to man its sorting offices and data centres and to drive delivery vans.
READ: Royal Mail launches nationwide doorstep parcel collection service
Royal Mail’s decision to expand its seasonal workforce is the next step of an effort by the company to capitalise on the online shopping boom by offering new capacity and customer service options.
Last week, the firm launched a parcel pick-up service across the UK allowing posties to collect parcels as well as deliver them on their daily rounds. The Parcel Collect service will cost 72p per parcel on top of postage costs for up to five parcels collected from a customer’s front door or nominated safe place.
The targeting of parcel deliveries also forms part of a wider strategy at the group to wean itself off of declining letter volumes and become profitable again by tapping to more lucrative parcel delivery segment.
Shares in the company were down 1.4% at 246p in early deals on Monday.