Busiest day of year for postal workers as festive rush continues
Royal Mail staff in Scotland have been working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to sort the festive post
Millions of cards, letters and presents are being sorted across the country as postal workers deal with their busiest day of the year.
Planning for the Christmas rush starts in May and Royal Mail staff in Scotland have been working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to sort the festive postbag.
At the Glasgow Mail Centre, about 2.7 million items of mail were being sorted on Thursday, including hundreds of thousands of parcels, as the surge in online shopping continues.
Similar loads are being handled in Edinburgh, with 1,500 seasonal workers brought in to help the 8,000 Royal Mail staff across Scotland.
Ricky McAulay, processing and collections director for the north of the UK, said: "This is our peak day, 2.7 million items will pass through Glasgow's processing centre but we're geared up for it and start planning for Christmas about seven or eight months in advance to make sure we're ready to deliver at such an important time of year.
"Across the whole of Scotland we have around 8,000 year-round staff that we supplement with about 1,500 additional, seasonal staff.
"The people who are here year-round do a fantastic job but at Christmas we do a lot of additional hours to make sure we can handle the bumper mailbag we see at this time of year.
"We see growth every year in online shopping and the delivery that goes along with that - last year during December Royal Mail delivered 130 million parcels, which was 6% up on the previous year.
"It's early to say where this Christmas will fit in with that but we're very busy, and pleased to be.''
Royal Mail staff will be working on deliveries until Christmas Eve, with the last recommended posting dates for second-class mail on December 20 and the following day for first-class.
Mr McAulay said the dates are not affected by planned strikes by staff in the Communication Workers Union who work in Crown Post Offices - larger branches usually found on town and city high streets.
"The industrial action is in post-office counters and it's a very small part of our network,'' Mr McAulay said.
"The 11,000 non-crown offices are open for business as normal, Royal Mail is absolutely open for business as normal and, in fact, a number of those crown offices are operating, and we'll be collecting so it doesn't impact on our network or what customers can expected from us.''
Despite sorting stacks of Christmas mail over the last few weeks, Glasgow centre worker Paula Carey still needs to sort her own.
She said: "You'd think by now I'd be a bit more organised and used to thinking about Christmas early since we get reminded of it every day but I still need to post a few things myself.''
She added: "Mail volumes are dramatic compared to normal at this time of year but there's always a good atmosphere because people need to work together to deal with all the loads.''