Delivering for islanders this Christmas

Christmas is coming! As well as being the most wonderful time of year, it’s also the busiest at Jersey Post.

Around 30% more parcels and letters are processed and delivered during November and December, thanks to Black Friday and Christmas, with Mondays and Tuesdays being the busiest days. Posties deliver between 50,000 and 65,000 items by van, bike or on foot on these days during the peak season.

Julie Thomas, Managing Director (Postal & Logistics) at Jersey Post advises islanders to post early to all destinations to avoid the festive rush. “We’re ready for a busy peak period,” she says. “We’ve recruited extra staff and cleared the decks to increase capacity for larger items. Our posties will be delivering everything from food to clothes to bikes, through our partnerships with Royal Mail, Amazon, DPD, UPS, Yodel and others. We’re also extending the Saturday opening hours at our Broad Street and Rue des Pres Post Offices, to allow customers more time to post or to collect parcels.”

To help islanders, each household will receive a booklet through their letterbox in November, detailing last posting dates, as well as Post Office opening hours and parcel collection times over the festive season. This will also be available on our website at www.jerseypost.com/christmas and on our social media channels.

Here are some useful tips for posting over November and December:

• SecureDrop: sign up for this easy and convenient free service on our website, which allows all items (large and signed-for) to be delivered to a safe place on your property. We will send a delivery notification via email, helping customers to know when their item is in their SecureDrop location.
• GST: if asked, pay promptly on any items over £60 to prevent delivery delays.
• Buy postage online: save time and buy postage labels on our website. Then simply drop your items to your nearest Post Office and skip the queues. We also have self-service kiosks at Broad Street and Rue des Pres Post Offices.
• Sending mail to the UK and beyond: fill out the customs forms accurately and see our website for details on mail formats and dimensions to stay within weight and size limits. Post Office colleagues are also happy to help with any questions. See www.jerseypost.com/packagingguidelines
• Cards: check out the wide selection for all the family at Rue des Pres and Broad Street Post Offices (with lots of local gifts also available at Broad Street).

Posties will also be delivering to the North Pole again this year. Children are invited to post their letter to Santa and the elves using postboxes around the island or at the library (in the children’s section). Posties will get these over to Santa’s team free of charge. Deadline for posting is 13th December. Please include a name and return address so Santa can reply!

This year’s Christmas campaign features a festive feast in our sorting office at Rue des Pres, with some of our much loved posties . It’s inspired by Jersey Stamps International Christmas issue, which launches on Monday 11th November. The festive stamps issue celebrates our island’s diverse community, and includes dishes from many different nationalities, such as a French yule log, Polish beetroot soup, Portuguese cod, British turkey, amongst other dishes.

Julie and the Jersey Post team wish all our customers a happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year. We hope our customers can join us in thanking all our hard-working posties and Post Office colleagues, who deliver for islanders over this busy period, come rain or shine – they really do an incredible job for us.

For more information, head to www.jerseypost.com/christmas.