Yodel admits Christmas delivery failures

TENS of thousands of people will miss out on hoped-for Christmas presents tomorrow after one of Britain’s biggest couriers admitted it had failed to deliver parcels on time.

Delivery firms are facing a backlog. Picture: Malcolm McCurrach

Yodel, the country’s largest delivery firm after Royal Mail, handles up to a million parcels a day over Christmas for companies such as Amazon, Argos and Tesco Direct, but warned of a backlog 12 days ago due to the sheer volume and stopped collecting new dispatches.

The company is refusing to compensate angry customers.

Industry insiders claimed Yodel was desperately trying to clear tens of thousands of gifts piled up in warehouses.

Yodel executive chairman Dick Stead said: “We are continuing to deliver up to and including Christmas Eve evening and will resume services on the 27th.

“We apologise to anyone whose parcels have been delayed and recommend they speak to the retailer regarding compensation.”

Following the massive surge in orders this year, Royal Mail opened ten temporary Christmas parcel sorting centres and hired an extra 19,000 temporary staff.

A spokesman said: “All our postmen and women have been working very hard to help deliver Christmas for our customers.

“We believe our network has coped well with the significant extra volume at this time.”