As a result of the festive period, over the last month Isle of Man Post Office's mails division has experienced sustained growth in the volumes of packets and parcels being sent to and from the UK and internationally. Due to the extremely busy Christmas period combined with continued bad weather customers were being urged to post mail items as soon as possible in time for Christmas.

Geoff Rickard, Isle of Man Post Office General Manager of Mails said: “Despite the difficult weather conditions over the last few weeks which have created delay to mail items arriving and being despatched off Island, around 200 postal staff in Douglas, Ramsey, Peel and at our Southern Delivery Office at Ronaldsway have battled the elements to sort and deliver all cards and parcels in time for Christmas. Office based colleagues have also been providing additional operational support as they do each year during the busy Christmas period, carrying out mail segregation and parcels sorting to help keep the operation flowing.” 

By the time we get to Christmas Isle of Man Post Office anticipates handling and delivering around 10% more packets and parcels this year than last.

Geoff continued: “This continued growth in parcels is being attributed to more people shopping online; conversely, through more people using emails we continue to see a decline in the number of letters and cards. Despite this we still expect to collect about 2 million items from Island businesses and post boxes for local and UK delivery and receive more than 2 million items from the UK during the period. Overall, we expect to deliver around 3 million items to Island residents over the whole festive period.”

As a reminder the last recommended posting date for Island posted / Island delivered mail is Tuesday 22nd December.