Royal Mail has issued a delivery update warning 142 UK postcode areas of delays to their mail. The delivery firm has published a list of the affected areas.
As of Thursday, August 13, there are delays in large parts of the UK, including Bedford, Chester, Margate, Merthyr Tydfil and Inverclyde. 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.
"In those cases, we will rotate deliveries to minimise the delay to individual customers. We also provide targeted support to those offices to address their challenges and restore our service to the high standard our customers would normally receive."
It added: "We're sorry for any inconvenience and thank you for your understanding."
Over the past 24 hours, Royal Mail's air and road network operated to schedule.
However, not all mail centres processed or dispatched according to schedule. Manchester Mail Centre says that some mail posted in the BL, M, OL and SK postcode areas is for delivery in other parts of the UK.
Royal Mail aims to deliver to addresses by 4.30 pm every working day, which is Monday to Saturday. But, this does not apply in some locations such as Scotland’s Highlands and Islands, where "transport is limited."
When it comes to Sunday and evening deliveries, Royal Mail explained: "We also make some scheduled parcel deliveries later, which can include deliveries in the evening. These parcel deliveries can include Sundays with some geographical exceptions."
