Royal Mail has blamed stormy weather and staff sickness for delayed deliveries across more than 100 UK postcodes after postal workers revealed letters sit undelivered 'for weeks'.
The postal firm, described as a 'company in crisis', is facing complaints of delayed mail and parcels being prioritised over letters.
Royal Mail today listed 38 delivery offices in the UK - covering around 100 postcodes - that may be most affected by a slower service.
A spokesman for the company said that 'adverse weather, including storms Goretti, Ingrid and Chandra in January, alongside higher-than-usual sick absence, has caused some short-term disruption to certain routes.'
'We want to reassure customers that the vast majority of mail is delivered as planned and understand how frustrating it is when post does not arrive as expected,' the firm said.
It added that, where delays do affect a route, it will move to bring in extra support to 'restore deliveries as quickly as possible'.
It comes as post office staff revealed to the BBC that some letters are being held in delivery offices for weeks, leaving people to miss urgent mail such as appointment notices and bank statements.
Despite new owners promising to 'put employees and customers at the heart of everything,' the Communication Workers Union (CWU) has said Royal Mail is a 'company in crisis.'
Royal Mail listed 38 delivery offices in the UK today, covering around 100 postcodes, that may be most affected by a slower service (Stock image)
Royal Mail has blamed stormy weather and staff sickness for delayed deliveries across more than 100 UK postcodes
More than 20 postal workers from across the UK spoke with the BBC with 19 of them saying parcels were still taking priority over all letters, despite Royal Mail previously denying this.
One postman said: 'There aren't enough vans to go around... you're going to have to share a van with someone else which means a really bad day where you'll probably end up only doing parcel delivery as that's where the money is for the company, so we're told to prioritise those over the mail.'
Another worker described the workload consisting of both parcels and letters as 'impossible', while one postie who has worked with the company for some time said things are the worse he has ever seen.
He even described two days over the Christmas period where no mail was sorted in his delivery office.
The worker also told the BBC: 'If they're small parcels and they’re first class, then that is supposed to take priority over second class, but the truth of it is if there’s a large parcel that’s second class we take it because we don’t want it in the delivery office, getting in the way the next day.'
A report by the BBC found that some letters were being held in delivery offices for weeks, leaving people to miss urgent mail such as appointment notices and bank statements.
The company has said it is delivering more parcels as online shopping continues to grow, while the number of addressed letters going through its network is falling.
It is understood that Royal Mail will opt to clear parcels first if they build up quickly and block walkways in delivery offices.
This has had serious effects on people across the UK who rely on timely deliveries of important letters and parcels.
Juliet, from Crawley, told the BBC she was unimpressed and left with real consequences because many of her important NHS letters for appointments would arrive past the booked date.
The company has said it is delivering more parcels as online shopping continues to grow, while the number of addressed letters going through its network is falling.
Royal Mail serves nearly two million postcodes and is required to deliver mail six days a week, and aims to deliver both letters and parcels on time.
Last year, the regulator Ofcom gave the go-ahead for Royal Mail to scrap second class letter deliveries on Saturdays and change the service to every other weekday.
Ofcom has also said it has fined Royal Mail £37million in recent years for its poor letter delivery service.
Royal Mail launched the changes across 35 delivery offices as a pilot, but has yet to expand this nationwide across all 1,200 sites due to failing to reach agreement with the staff union.
It is in the middle of a month-long dispute resolution process with the CWU with the aim of reaching an agreement over how the workforce will be impacted by the overhaul.
However, Craig Anderson from the CWU told BBC: 'I'm not confident that the service is going to improve moving forward, it certainly hasn't since Christmas... Royal Mail is a company in crisis.'
List of postcodes that might be affected by the Royal Mail delays
- Aberdare DO (CF44, CF45)
- Ashington DO (NE22, NE62, NE63, NE64)
- Banbridge DO (BT32)
- Beverley DO (HU11, HU17, HU18)
- Brechin DO (DD9)
- Brierley Hill DO (DY5)
- Chichester DO (PO18 - PO20)
- Chipping Norton DO (OX7)
- Daventry DO (NN11)
- Glasgow G15 DO (G15)
- Glasgow G52 DO (G52, G53)
- Helston DO (TR12, TR13)
- Hull Central DO (HU1-HU3, HU5, HU9, HU12, HU19)
- Hyde DO (SK13, SK14, SK16)
- Kingswood DO (BS15, BS30)
- Kirkcaldy DO (KY1 - KY3)
- Leicester East DO (LE2, LE5-LE7)
- Lichfield DO (WS7, WS13, WS14)
- Lisburn DO (BT26-BT28)
- Lochgelly DO (KY5)
- Lutterworth DO (LE9, LE17)
- Maida Hill DO (W9)
- North Tyneside DO (NE25-NE30)
- Oxford East DO (OX3, OX4, OX33, OX44, OX49)
- Penarth DO (CF64)
- Pendle DO (BB8, BB9)
- Pontefract DO (WF7, WF8, WF9, WF11)
- Pontyclun DO (CF72)
- Prenton DO (CH43)
- Shrewsbury DO (SY1-SY5)
- Sileby SPDO (LE12)
- Sleaford DO (NG34)
- South Shields DO (NE33, NE34)
- Sunderland DO (SR1-SR6, SR9)
- Swan House DO (LE1, LE3, LE7-LE9, LE19, LE95)
- Swindon DO (SN1, SN2, SN3, SN6, SN25, SN26, SN38, SN99)
- Waterlooville DO (PO7-PO8)
- Whitwood DO (WF6, WF10)