Delivering for the country
At Royal Mail, we are actively monitoring the rapidly evolving coronavirus situation. The postal service is a key part of the UK’s infrastructure. The delivery of parcels and letters is an important way of keeping the country together and helping many people who may not have the option to leave their homes.
We will continue providing the best delivery service for you and protect the health of our people, and our customers. We have provided guidance to our people to help prevent the spread of any infection. We are doing so in line with preventative guidance from Public Health Authority. We have also made a series of adjustments to our parcel handling procedures. We are keeping our ways of working under continuous review.
Public Health England (PHE) has advised that people receiving parcels are not at risk of contracting the coronavirus. From experience with other coronaviruses, we know that these types of viruses don’t survive long on objects, such as letters or parcels. This complements the highly publicised guidance from PHE for people to wash their hands more often than usual using soap and hot water.
International delivery
We are working with our airline and postal/courier partners across the globe to maintain services.
Royal Mail’s international services to the USA remain operational. We continue to accept and process mail. For country by country updates, visit our International Incidents Bulletin.
Contingency plans
We have strong contingency plans in place to ensure mail is kept moving. The scale, vast network and business continuity expertise of our organisation means we have extensive experience in being able to quickly deploy plans so we continue to provide customers with access to our collection and delivery services, and their mail.
Changes to service
Signing for and receiving items
In order to protect both our people and customers as much as possible, we are minimising contact during delivery. We will not be handing over our hand-held devices to customers to capture signatures but instead log the name of the person accepting the item. Additionally, for all customers where we need to deliver any item that won’t fit through your letterbox, we will place your item at your door. Having knocked on your door, we will then step aside to a safe distance while you retrieve your item. This will ensure your item is delivered securely rather than being left outside.
More information about this change can be found in the Domestic section FAQ or on product pages.
Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1pm
For items posted from Thursday 19 March 2020 onwards, we’ll no longer guarantee deliveries by 1pm the next working day. We’ll still prioritise Special Delivery parcels and letters and will aim to deliver by 1pm or before the end of day. Resource implications of the latest coronavirus advice means we may not be able to meet the customer promise of guaranteed next day delivery in all locations at all times.
Our Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9am service remains unchanged; we still guarantee to deliver by 9am.