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Find out how Royal Mail staff are working around the clock during the Christmas rush - WATCH

While many workplaces may be starting to scale down in the run-up to a much-needed Christmas break, nothing could be further from the truth at the Royal Mail.

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For staff at the Wolverhampton processing centre, the final few days before Christmas are the busiest and most hectic of the year.

Thousands upon thousands of last-minute Christmas cards and presents flood into the Sun Street centre and they all need to be processed ready for the posties to head out onto the streets.

The scale of the operation is huge, as is the pressure on the army of workers, none of whom want to be responsible for a card or parcel turning up late.

An extra 180 workers were drafted in to help the Royal Mail centre cope with the Christmas rush, taking the Wolverhampton workforce to 750.

Last Wednesday, a mind-boggling 2.5 million letters and parcels arrived all needing to be processed and delivered within the next 24 hours. And it's not just Wolverhampton that staff have to worry about. The area they cover stretches all the way to Stoke and down to Dudley.

Mail heading for the Potteries has to be processed and ready for collection by 5.20am in order to make it up the M6 so it can be to be posted on time.

Plant manager Aaron Barnes is experiencing the Christmas rush in Wolverhampton for the first time. He is among the bosses who have been tasked with planning to ensure the period runs smoothly.

"The typical dispatch is 1.25 million, so we are doubling it," said Mr Barnes. "It is tough. That's why we have brought in additional resources, 180 seasonal workers have been brought into the mail centre in proportion to 19,000 nationally."

Area processing rep Steve Hackford said: "It's a big challenge. Seasonal workers have come in and a lot of part-time workers have gone full-time for Christmas. It's all hands to the pump."

The online shopping boom over the last few years has created another challenge for the Royal Mail workers.

Mr Barnes said: "One of the biggest challenges is the physical space for sorting Christmas mail, with the size of the parcels. Duvets and pillows, for example, take up a lot of space. This work area performs fantastically well. They dealt with 220,000 items on Wednesday."

He says the key to getting through Christmas is planning and attention will soon turn to next year. "We started planning the day we resumed after Christmas," he said.

One of the biggest bugbears for workers is post codes – or the lack of them.

Perhaps aside from the house number, it is the most important information that goes on a letter – yet many people forget or don't even bother to include them.

Many of the Christmas cards that come into the centre are processed automatically by machines which read post codes – so when they are left off it becomes time consuming for staff.

"It can be sorted in five minutes with the post code on. Without the post code it can take an hour and 20 minutes. We have to look up the address by name to find it," Mr Hackford said.

"We have even had cards come through from the Government without a post code. It's not just the general public."

Carol Bell is no stranger to the Christmas madness having worked in Wolverhampton for 31 years. For her, preparation is the key. The 54 year old said: "On an average day, my section will deal with 38 to 40,000 letters. Now it's 220,000. But we prepare well and we get great support.

"It makes you look forward to Christmas more when you work so hard over a three-week period. I can go home on Christmas Eve knowing we have been successful."

Workplace coach Parveen Lata, who helps train all the seasonal staff who have been drafted in to help, heaped praise on the workforce, saying: "Everyone gives 110 per cent to make sure everything is done on time. Management give great support and work together with staff."

Shift manager Tara Smith said: "Everyone understands what it means to be clear at Christmas. Nobody wants to see letters or parcels left on Christmas Eve.

"Before I started here I never realised the amount of processing that goes on in order to get mail and presents clear and the army of people working here."

Mr Barnes said: "A bad Christmas for us is to still have Christmas cards on the dispatches on Christmas Eve. But it hasn't happened yet."

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