Picking up the pace

With parcel volumes continuing to increase and letters declining, it’s important we change in order to grow our business.

Today, around 90% of our letters are sorted automatically but nine out of 10 parcels are still sorted manually – just like they were 100 years ago. This is why we need to change.

By 2024, we’re aiming to automate more than 80% of our parcels. That’s why mail centres up and down the country are taking delivery of parcel sorting machines (PSMs).

Bristol and Sheffield are the latest to receive the cutting-edge machinery: the 12th and 13th of 16 mail centres earmarked to do so by the autumn. Less than two weeks after the PSM landed in Bristol, we asked colleagues what they thought of the new arrival.

OPG Shibu George (pictured) was part of the first cohort to be trained on the machine and thinks the potential of the PSM is exciting. ‘It’s definitely good for our business,’ he said. ‘I’ve been here 14 years and there have been lots of good changes. This is one of them.’

Although the PSM isn’t operating at full capacity yet, the benefits of automation are already evident. Bristol are currently processing around 7,500 parcels per hour. The goal is to hit 9,000 per hour, a milestone within reach as more colleagues are trained to operate the machine and start working on it.

‘Before this, we were sorting around 580 parcels an hour,’ said assistant late shift manager Sajjad Husain. ‘These had to be separated into primary and secondary categories, meaning in real terms there were around 290 parcels sorted every hour. The change speaks for itself.’

Wayne Jay, national process and collections director said: ‘Parcel automation is a really big part of our strategy. We have committed to invest in it and support our automation journey, moving from where we are currently to 80% and beyond in the future.

‘Automating parcels really makes a big difference from an efficiency and productivity point of view for the business. We had an 8% increase in parcel volumes last year which is really encouraging in such a competitive market.

‘Customers have a choice and what we’ve got to do is make sure they select Royal Mail.’