Royal Mail will be opening 10 temporary sort centres for the third consecutive peak to help sort the forecast high volume of parcels.

The carrier, which is preparing for its listing on the London Stock Exchange next week,  is hoping to recruit 4,000 workers for facilities in Motherwell, Livingston, Heywood, Swindon, Leeds, Greenford, Peterborough, Northampton, Tamworth, and Llantrisant in south Wales.

The sites are scheduled to open on a phased basis beginning 4 November and are being set up to sort a significant proportion of parcels before they are distributed to depots for onward delivery.

Mark Higson, MD of operations and modernisation, said the centres have been opened to increase its scale and improve flexibility.

He said: “The use of additional parcel sort centres has proved extremely successful the past two years. They are now an integral part of Royal Mail’s substantial financial commitment in additional resources at Christmas to handle the festive mail bag as effectively as possible.”

Last year it opened eight temporary sort centres ahead of Christmas.