Does Royal Mail deliver on Saturday?

Royal Mail deliver first ever parcel by drone in Scotland

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Brits are looking forward to a nice, long weekend this week as the bank holiday rolls in for another round. The next bank holiday comes on Monday, May 31, across the home nations. This is also the first day of the school half term break for many in the country, adding further excitement to the weekend. On top of that, the weather is expected to be sunny and warm so people will undoubtedly be out and about enjoying the easing of lockdown. But while bank holidays are great all around, there’s one issue – times for everything, including shopping and mail deliveries, changes.

Does Royal Mail deliver on a Saturday?

In short, yes. Royal Mail does deliver on a Saturday but it depends on which part of the country you live in and what kind of mail you’re expecting.

Royal Mail temporarily stopped delivering letters on Saturday last year, between May 2 and June 13, likely as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the service resumed following this date so it’s safe to say your parcel will likely arrive on Saturday if that’s when you’re expecting it.

Royal Mail delivers the following on a Saturday:

  • First class parcels
  • First class signed-for parcels, large letters
  • Letters
  • Second class parcels
  • Second class signed for parcels, large letters and letters
  • Royal Mail 24 parcels and large letters
  • Royal Mail tracked 24 and 48 parcels and tracked letterbox-able formats
  • Royal Mail tracked returns
  • Special delivery guaranteed by 9am (all formats)
  • Special delivery guaranteed by 1pm (all formats)
  • International import tracked services (all formats)

However, seeing as this weekend is a bank holiday, there will be no deliveries or collections on Monday, May 31.

The same goes for every other bank holiday in England and Wales this year.

Royal Mail has recently announced it will trial Sunday parcel deliveries for major retailers amid a huge online shopping boom during the pandemic.

Internet sales were already high before the crisis, but were pushed even further by the fact nobody could leave their homes for non-essential reasons during lockdown and shops were closed.

 

Royal Mail said the trial would open the door to parcel deliveries seven days a week.

The postal service was hit with severe Covid delays this year, but a spokesperson at the time said it was working hard to resolve the issues and as is understood, it’s back to normal now.

Royal Mail said an increasing number of customers were shopping online and expected to get their purchases as soon as possible after placing an order.

The postal giant said “a number of retail brands are trialling the service”, but declined to name them as yet.

Rivals such as DPD and Hermes already make Sunday deliveries for major online retailers, like Amazon Prime.

Nick Landon, chief commercial officer at Royal Mail, said: “The last year has reset so many customer expectations and the desire for even more convenience, and even more frequent parcel deliveries has certainly been one of them.”

Royal Mail said it had “processed unprecedented parcel volumes” in the past year as non-essential retailers were closed during lockdown.

The company piloted Sunday parcel deliveries once before in 2014 but took the decision not to roll out that service.

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