UK postal operator Royal Mail is to open 10 new parcel sorting centres across the UK to cope with the expected surge in demand during the festive season.

The temporary sorting centres are being used for the fifth year running to cope with the spate in demand. They are in Heathrow, Bathgate in West Lothian, Leyland in Lancashire, Bradford, Wolverhampton, Swindon, Newport in Gwent, Peterborough, Greenford, and Bletchley in Milton Keynes. They will be phased into action with the first ones opening next week.

To run the sorting centres, around 3,000 temporary staff will be hired for the festive season between the 2nd November and January. The staff and centres will support the Royal Mail’s 123,000 postal staff, and form part of the 19,000 seasonal workers who are helping the newly privatised mail company meet the peak in demand. For those interested in taking on such a role at Royal Mail, visit www.royalmailgroup.com/xmasjobs to start working for the company.

Royal Mail is one of many delivery businesses around the world trying to meet the demand of what is expected to be one of the busiest festive seasons on record. The UK is just joining the US in the Black Friday peak in demand for online e-commerce so there will be a longer than normal peak in demand for goods bought online. Black Friday alone is expected to generate £1bn in online sales, and the January Sales are going to be no less important for the e-commerce industry as a whole.