Post Office gears up for Christmas avalanche

THE Post Office is gearing up for its Christmas campaign, when it expects to deliver nearly 12 million objects in the Balearics alone.
This means it will be taking on 40 temporary workers and will be organising some 2'000 hours of overtime in order to cope with the avalanche of seasonal mail. December deliveries are 16 percent higher than the average volume of mail handled during the rest of the year, a spokesman said, adding that every effort is made to ensure that delays are kept to a minimum. On a national level, the Post Office expects to handle 520 million objects this year.
The management started its Operation Christmas on December 1, as part of a campaign to reduce delays.
Its first step was to ask mail order firms or firms with large mailing lists to hand in their mail in good time.
This prevents the service from becoming bogged down.
A spokesman for the Post Office, said that they were aiming to give a quality service and recognised the need for speedy deliveries.
On a national level, 2'500 temporary workers will be contracted and 52'000 hours of overtime will be worked, mainly in the key delivery and classification departments. So far in the Balearics 35 temporary workers have been taken on and 2'000 hours of overtime have been authorised by the management.
Special measures include extra deliveries on Saturdays throughout December, and urgent mail will be delivered on December 24 and 31.
Pillar boxes will be emptied more frequently between now and December 24 and there will also be extra collections from the pillar boxes.
The classification centre in the Son Castelló industrial estate will be operating full time on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays to absorb the extra mail. The transport of mail will also be boosted.
The Post Office spokesman said that this should mean that all Christmas mail is delivered with as little delay as possible.
He pointed out that despite modern methods of communications, the mail was still the most popular way of sending Christmas greetings.
The Post Office regularly comes under fire in the Balearics, with complaints about poor delivery, especially in rural areas.
In recent years, it has modernised its facilities, particularly at the main branch, which is now user friendly.
OPENING TIMES l The main Post Office in Palma, in Calle Constitución (off the Borne) will be open for receiving mail until 5pm on December 24 and 31. The other Post offices in the Balearics will be open from 8.30am to 1.30pm. l The Postal Transfer office in Calle Constitución 6, which is aimed at handling the specific needs of immigrants, will accept mail until 5pm on December 24 and 31. It will handle other services until 8.30pm.