Simon Calder warns of Easter travel chaos on UK roads
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Cards and chocolate treats will be top of the gift list for well-wishers looking to send to friends and family ahead of the Easter weekend. The Covid pandemic has disrupted celebrations in the past couple of years and prevented families from being together but with all four of the nations that make up the UK scrapping their protective measures, 2022 looks poised to be a return to normal ways.
Does post get delivered over the Easter weekend?
This Easter, Royal Mail will not be collecting or delivering mail in England, Wales and Northern Ireland on Good Friday, April 15, and Easter Monday, April 18.
However, postal services will operate as normal on Saturday (April 16), before full service resumes on Tuesday (April 19).
In Scotland collections and deliveries will continue as usual on Good Friday while there will be no collections or deliveries on Easter Monday.
Depots and collection units will also be closed on these days in case you wanted to go and pick up a missed delivery or collect a parcel.
The Royal Mail said: “We deliver and collect your mail on most days of the year, including Saturdays.
“However, we don’t usually deliver or collect on bank and public holidays.”
During the Good Friday and Easter Monday bank holidays most post offices in the UK will be closed.
But some local branches, including those in convenience stores, might still be open, though this will be for shorter hours.
During the calendar year Royal Mail workers deliver letters and parcels between every Monday and Saturday, with some exceptions.
These fall on bank holidays where there are no deliveries or collections and the post offices will be closed.
Unfortunately, for Brits who have yet to post their deliveries this means that it’s now too late for you to send something in time for the holidays.
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The latest you would have been able to leave sending a delivery with a First Class stamp – which aims to arrive the next working day – was Wednesday.
Earlier this month Royal Mail hiked up its prices for both First and Second class stamps.
The price of a First Class stamp rose by 10p to 95p, while Second Class stamps also increased by 2p to 68p.
Since 2010 the price for either class of stamp have more than doubled when they cost 41p and 32p respectively.
Royal Mail said it was having to deliver to a growing number of addresses, which was adding to costs.
Nick Landon, Royal Mail chief commercial officer, said: “While the number of letters our postmen and women deliver has declined from around 20 billion a year to around seven billion since 2004/05, the number of addresses they have to deliver to has grown by around 3.5 million in the same period.
“We need to carefully balance our pricing against declining letter volumes and increasing costs of delivering to a growing number of addresses six days a week.
“As customer needs change and we see a greater shift from letters to parcels, it is vital that the Universal Service adapts to stay relevant and sustainable.
“These prices changes are necessary to ensure we can continue to maintain and invest in the one-price-goes-anywhere Universal Service for future generations.”
Last year saw the volume of parcels the firm delivers to surge as people embraced online shopping, more than offsetting its losses from letters.
In fact, its annual profits quadrupled to £726m in the year to March 28 – up from £180m a year earlier.
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