A COURIER and logistics company which said only ‘urgent’ items were being sent from its Basingstoke depot during staff shortages has cleared up confusion over how this was done.

As previously reported, Parcelforce issued a statement to the Gazette confirming that staff were “prioritising the most urgent items for delivery” during the week of May 16.

Read more: Only 'urgent' items delivered from Parcelforce Basingstoke depot

A spokesperson for Parcelforce Worldwide, which is part of the Royal Mail Group, said the Basingstoke depot, in Grafton Way, had experienced problems with sickness absences and resourcing issues during an “exceptionally busy period”.

However, the statement led to concerns over how staff were “prioritising” sending urgent items unless they opened them to see what was inside.

A member of staff at the Parcelforce depot in Basingstoke got in touch to say: “We at Parcelforce do not know what the items contain at the depot level apart from various items such as schools etc.”

They added that the depot had been “operating as normal with very little disruption” adding: “There has been no rush to find any passport or such documents.”

The spokesperson explained that staff “prioritised searches”. He added: “What this means is that when customers complained about items not having been delivered, my colleagues’ search for undelivered items was prioritised according to the ‘urgency’ of what had not been delivered.

“To take a hypothetical, if a customer had said that their new passport had not arrived and that they were flying the next day, then the search for that item would have been prioritised as being particularly urgent.”

Services from the Basingstoke depot have now returned to normal.

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