The Met Office has issued yellow weather warnings for snow and ice in several UK regions today, including East England, London and South East England, Southwest England, and Wales.
It comes after amber warnings were in place yesterday, Wednesday, January 8, as the nation braced for snow and icy conditions.
As a result, Royal Mail has issued a warning to its customers, noting that “the safety of our people is our priority” and that disruption may be likely during periods of “severe weather.”
Customers across the UK have faced delays since Monday, January 6, and the postal service acknowledged that snow and ice in parts of the country have “severely impacted” its services since then.
As for today, Royal Mail deliveries could be late to customers in 17 UK postcodes in 11 regions.
Royal Mail said: “We aim to deliver to all addresses we have mail for, six days a week. In a small number of local offices, this may temporarily not be possible due to local issues such as high levels of sick absence, resourcing, or other local factors.”
Local issues have disrupted 11 delivery offices today, including Dunstable, Thornbury and Huntingdon. This means that parcels and packages may arrive later than planned.
The postal service reassured customers that it would rotate deliveries to minimise the delay to individual customers.
Royal Mail claimed: “We also provide targeted support to those offices to address their challenges and restore our service to the high standard our customers normally receive.”
Royal Mail also operates an air, rail and road network to move letters and parcels between its distribution hubs, mail processing centres and delivery offices around the UK
The service reported that all logistics operations across its air, rail, road, and mail centre routes operated to schedule over the last 24 hours.
It comes just days after more than 30 postcodes faced delays on Tuesday, January 7. The postal service said that mail centres in Gatwick, London Central, Manchester, Preston, and the South Midlands reported that not all mail was processed or despatched to schedule over the past weekend.