Royal Mail prices will be going up at the beginning of next week. PC2Paper will increase its prices in line with the Royal Mail increase.

PC2Paper will be closed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Any letters sent during these days will be queued in our system and posted on the next available working day. In addition to this we have an earlier than normal cut-off time of 12 noon for mail on Christmas Eve due to an earlier postal collection.

We will also be removing Special Delivery and Recorded Delivery temporarily over the Christmas period once the cut-off time for these services has passed.

The last recommended posting dates for Christmas are fast approaching. Royal Mail recommends that 2nd class mail is posted by Wednesday 18th of December. 1st Class mail by Friday the 20th of December and Special Delivery by Monday the 23rd of December.

The last recommended posting dates are fast approaching, some in fact are all ready here. Make sure you get your letters in the post in plenty of time. Post them by the following dates to be in time for Christmas.

• Wednesday 4 December for Asia, the Far East, New Zealand
• Thursday 5 December for Australia
• Friday 6 December for Africa, Caribbean, Central & South America, Middle East
• Monday 9 December for Cyprus, Eastern Europe
• Tuesday 10 December for Canada, France, Greece, Poland
• Friday 13 December for USA
• Saturday 14 December for Western Europe (excluding France, Greece, Poland)

Our US based printing station will be taking a well deserved break for Thanksgiving. Their offices will be closed on the 28th and 29th of November. Any US based mail received after close of business on the 27th of November will still be sent to our US based printing station for processing but will not reach the postal system until Monday the 2nd of December.

A Royal Mail strike which was planned for next week has been called off after a new agreement has been reached. The agreement is though to include an improved pay offer and a separate pensions agreement. This new agreement should be finalised within the next two weeks.

Royal Mail workers have voted for a national 24 hour strike. This will take place on the 4th of November. PC2Paper use Royal Mail for all of our outgoing mail so we expect disruption on this day. Customers should be aware that during strike action we will be unable to pass any mail to the postal service. Normal service will resume as soon as the Royal Mail service is back to normal. We will update customers if we receive any further information on the strike action.

Postal Workers look set to strike as the government goes ahead with plans to privatise Royal Mail. The unions are to ballot their members on strike action which could begin in mid-October and continue in the run up to Christmas causing widespread disruption to the postal service.

We will be watching this story closely and keep our customers up to date with any further developments.