Delivery demands

In five years’ time, we’ll still be one of the UK’s biggest employers, with predominantly permanent employees, and we’ll be able to keep delivering the Universal Service.

The majority of mail will continue to be delivered via a combined letters and small letterboxable parcels service – exactly as we do now. Small parcels account for around 90% of our parcel volume and will continue to do so.

Customers will potentially receive two deliveries a day – the core delivery of letters and letterboxable parcels as usual and then a later parcel van delivery.

Potentially 200-300 delivery offices will become parcel depots with a later van delivery. There will be fewer attendance calls as larger parcels move onto dedicated vans.

Our digital systems will help to make sure walks are fair and balanced. We will invest in upgrading our parcel depot offices so they can handle larger parcels more easily.

We are committed to working collaboratively with our unions on the strategy, detailed design and deployment. The extended parcels network will help fund the Universal Service

North London postman, Bonnie Ritchie (pictured), said: ‘From a customer perspective it would be easier if there were later deliveries - it saves them coming to the office and us bringing stuff back.

‘I'm always open to change and trialling it first would be good to see if it would be viable. We need to make tweaks as there's so many other courier companies. We have to get something in place to stay in the market.’

North London postwoman, Susan Bloor, said: ‘I love being on my own walk and getting to know customers. It can be imbalanced with parcels. Some days it's overwhelming with the amount, other days it's not so bad.

‘Larger parcels being taken out [of core routes] will free people up and deliveries will probably go a lot smoother, but there are concerns with that. I understand the reason why they want to do it, the company has to keep up with competitors, but we just want reassurance it's going to work out.’