by Jerome Hughes
SENIOR An Post officials in Donegal admit “Santa is still the main man” even as the postal service in Letterkenny deals with 4,500 individual items each morning during the lead up to Christmas.
Surprisingly, Santa takes a more direct route, bypassing a detour to Athlone, where items posted within Donegal are temporarily sent before returning for distribution.
“Whatever is for this area comes back to us for distribution in the general Letterkenny, Derrybeg, Falcarragh and Arranmore areas,” explains John Doherty, Working Leader with An Post’s Delivery Services Unit in Letterkenny.
Working around the clock, staff at An Post in Donegal are ensuring that the service is more efficient than at any time in history.
The hectic Christmas rush is on with tonnes of parcels, packets and letters being sorted and delivered to homes and businesses across our sprawling county.
Mail destined for Donegal arrives from major sorting hubs in Athlone, Dublin and Portlaoise.
It is then separated further at An Port centres in Letterkenny, Lifford and Donegal Town. These are called Delivery Service Units (DSUs).
Donegal News visited Letterkenny DSU on Tuesday morning where An Post’s John Doherty explained how everything works.
“We are covering a huge area. We have almost 60 drivers. The Letterkenny DSU has 51 delivery routes and we also have sub-offices in Derrybeg, Falcarragh and Arranmore.
“The mail has to be cleared by around 7am. It is then moved to the sub-offices.”
While An Post encourages shopping locally, the impact of online purchasing is undeniable.
“Most of my colleagues are here sorting out parcels to make sure we get the product out. Letter volumes have declined and parcel volumes have increased by up to 600 per cent.
“Since Covid, online shopping has increased massively. It dipped slightly after Covid but not that much. It’s primarily parcels now.
“It used to be the case that during summer things would get a bit quieter but that’s not the case now. However, it does spike from early November, right through the Christmas period,” said John.
Despite An Post having a state-of-the-art operation in Letterkenny, it’s clear that John still has his feet firmly on the ground, admitting,
“Santa’s still the main man. All our focus is on trying to do our best at this time of year to give the big man a hand where we can.”
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