bakergoodchild, a leading high-tech mailing company, have launched a campaign to celebrate postal workers across the UK.

The demand for postal workers is at an all-time high and with Royal Mail experiencing staff shortages across the country, our posties are more overworked than ever.

Since the pandemic, the amount of people using post has increased by one-third, and with Christmas fast approaching and online shopping spend expected to increase by 25% from the previous four years, it is anticipated to be the busiest time postal workers have ever had.

bakergoodchild conducted a survey to reveal what issues postal workers face, as well as uncovering more information about the UK’s mailing habits, with Britons sending over 11 million letters and parcels by Royal Mail each day. The data showed that people living in Cardiff are most likely to send post regularly, with 57% of individuals having sent a handwritten card or letter in the last month, compared to only 14% of Londoners. Interestingly, 35% of people living in London hadn’t sent anything by post for nearly a year. Also, according to the data, those in the North were heavier post users than the South, with 27% of northerners having sent or received a letter in the last month compared to 13% in the south.

The survey also revealed that 71% of people in the UK don’t know their postman or postwoman’s  name, a massive change from 50 years ago where individuals not only knew the name of their regular postal worker, but they often gave them a Christmas present or bonus.

Safety seemed to be a big issue amongst postal workers and when we asked dog owners what their dogs think of their post person, just under half said that their dogs don’t like their postie and might attack them given the chance. 53% of postal workers citied that they regularly get a hard time from dogs, so it’s no surprise that 62% of posties expressed that they often felt unsafe on their regular route.

Last year there were 33 dog attacks on mail carriers every week in the UK or 1,690 over the whole year. Although these figures are shocking, with the increase in contactless deliveries, dog attacks were actually down by a third on 2019’s figures.

Bruce Thomson, Managing Director of bakergoodchild, said:“Post pandemic, Direct mail is at an all-time high, despite the public perception of it being at an all-time low. One-quarter of people had sent a hand-written letter or card in the last month and well over 50% have sent one in the past six months.

Royal Mail are currently looking for 20,000 temporary workers to see them through the next few months and with the current projections of this years’ golden quarter, the job of postal workers will be the most difficult it’s ever been. With our dependence on the mailing industry increasing massively, it is important that we show support to our postal workers”