Transport & Logistics

Postal Operation

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Courier activities are a significant industry which account for around 14% of businesses in the logistics sector in Yorkshire. There are around 700 firms in the region which specialise in courier activities, most of which have 50 employees or less. These employers account for about 6% of all logistics employment in the region. When other logistics related jobs are taken into account, postal operations accounts for 12% of the logistics and related employment in the region. This is in addition to the 25 or so firms linked to national postal operations in the region, again with employee numbers of 50 or below, which accounts for around 23% of all logistics employment in the region. Self-employment accounts for 27% of those working within courier activities in the Yorkshire region.

The bulk of the workforce tends to be in the 35-54 age range and there are also skills shortages in the sector, so there are opportunities available to build a career in this industry which is currently modernising. There's also a wealth of information related and IT jobs within postal operations and courier services to ensure that parcels and documentation can be tracked across the item's journey and to reduce loss.

National Postal services are provided by The Royal Mail Group which includes the services of Royal Mail, Post Office and Parcelforce Worldwide. Parcelforce, delivers 82 million items to 27 million addresses each day and is the leading provider of express and time-guaranteed deliveries for e-tailers especially with e-commerce as such a growth area in retailing.

Other large operators include TNT, DHL, UPS and Fedex. Many of these operators use very large national sorting centres for the whole of the UK, mostly based in the Midlands rather than in the Yorkshire and Humber region. There are of course sorting offices and post offices in each city in the region. Similarly, searches for courier and postal services brings up numerous independent operators based across the region.

The Royal Logistics Corps also employ Postal and Courier Operators to maintain the flow of operationally vital information to the Army worldwide and supply personal mail to all three services around the world.

Useful links:

Postcomm

The Postal Services Commission, independent regulator for postal services.

The Royal Mail

Royal Mail Group Ltd is the parent company of Royal Mail, Post Office and Parcelforce Worldwide.  Find out more about their graduate programme.

Royal Logistics Corps Postal and Courier Operator roles

Find out more about these roles within the Army.