Thousands of presents remain buried in mountains of post bags at sorting offices, it has been revealed.
One image posted on Twitter displayed the huge pile of Royal Mail sacks in Bristol.
A second showed that sorting offices are so inundated that staff are having to stack items outside, putting parcels at risk of being damaged by rain or even stolen.
Union bosses are reporting similar scenes across the country and have described the Christmas delivery chaos as a nightmare after businesses complained parcels were taking up to a month to arrive.
A massive switch to online shopping means there are an estimated 200million more parcels in the postal and courier system this year. Online orders are expected to be up by more than 50 per cent as internet festive shopping overtakes the high street for the first time.
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18 December 202018 December 2020 Related Video and Audio
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Summary
Parcels taking up to a month to arrive as Christmas delivery chaos described as a nightmare
Businesses have urged Royal Mail to be more transparent about delivery times after receiving threatening messages from customers
18 December 2020 • 9:00pm
Ministers are concerned about the backlog but cannot intervene as Royal Mail is a private company
Credit: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images Europe
Postal unions have described the Christmas delivery chaos as a nightmare after businesses complained parcels were taking up to a month to arrive.
Fears are growing that presents will be missing on Christmas Day as last-minute shoppers rush online and are forced to rely on overstretched delivery services.
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