Royal Mail were early with last first class mail Friday Dec 20th. Private sector, it's more like 365 24/7 for urgent and 'nothing less than skeleton coverage', 'client comes first' were top of the courier and express answers.

Graham Thomas at Ocado explained the final mile food slots were gone by October; that’s client forward planning! the last turkey will be going out for final mile four pm Christmas Eve.

Take a look at the end of the extracts for Express dressed for Christmas, CitySprint Redhill leading the Santa photo parade on the IOC tweets so far.

IOC fellows talk Christmas break period

Richard England, Cambridge Courier Co.

We expect the Christmas peak to hit on Friday the 20th, with most companies in the hi-tech city of Cambridge closing down from Monday the 23rd until the New Year. Here at The Courier Company we stick to final mile core values and operate over the whole holiday period, without exception. We will however, stand half the fleet down to enjoy family time, as we do not expect much trade during the period. With the Bank Holidays falling mid week this year, we do not expect trade to start picking again until the 6th of January.

Adrian Smith, Swift Group, “Alcohol-free mince pies for us as usual this year”!

Our statistics would indicate a hiatus created by the election – here at Swift we cautiously steel ourselves for a very busy late run into this year’s festivities as focus returns to Santa and public and fiscal confidence is assured by the lack of significant change in Governance.

With the exception of our Overnight Division - three APC depots, our Express business tends to be B2B focused – significantly servicing IT and Healthcare markets in the field on an scheduled and immediate response basis – this is a 24/7/365 market and while the scheduling drops 24th through 31th this will be replaced with trauma and Business Critical service demands.

Kevin Gray, Point to Point, London

Mid week Christmas and New years Eve sets a quiet pre-week for the festive holidays, we expect Friday 20th to be the big last day but it never surprises me the amount of people who leave things to the last minute, Point to Point remains customer focused so we will still be open normal hours on the 24th and then its our normal Out of hours service until the 27th where we shall have a skeleton staff in the office and on the road with other couriers on standby if needed, the same will apply for the New Year period until the 2nd when things will slowly get back to normal.

Graham Thomas, Ocado food final mile

Last turkey will be 4pm Christmas Eve. As ever our final mile food Christmas slots from 20th to 24th December were all fully sold in October, the pressure is now on to deliver Christmas, with our final turkey set to be delivered at 4pm on Christmas Eve.

Darren Walmsley, Top Flight Couriers, Watford – ‘We always have drivers available’

We are very much open for business in between Christmas and New Year. Although we operate a skeleton staff, we ensure we always have drivers available to cover any urgent last-minute requests during the festive period!

UPS Peak – Hustle pride and teamwork

The word “peak” can mean a lot of things, but at UPS it means hustle, pride and teamwork.

Royal Mail, ‘Last date guaranteed Dec 23rd - Are you posting safely?’

Royal Mail Delivering Christmas, ‘Its important to think about different factors when posting your Christmas items, like its value, when you want it to arrive and what tracking you need,’

2nd class deadline is Wed 18th December, 1st class mail is Friday Dec 20. Royal Mail Special delivery guaranteed last posting date is Dec 23rd. Commenting on restrictions, ‘restrictions apply to many Christmas gift items including perfumes, aerosols, alcohols and items containing batteries, eg tablet, mobile phones and some toys.’ Check what can I send on the Royal mail site.

Express Courier dressed for Christmas

City Sprint Christmas Jumpers at Redhill

Nothing better than a good (or bad) Christmas Jumper. Some of the team at the CitySprint Redhill service centre getting right into the festive spirit for Friday Christmas jumper day.

Diamond Logistics Bristol went Elf for Friday charity day

Happy Christmas from diamond Bristol. Mandy, Bristol Network Partner for Diamond got the team into full Friday Christmas spirit. Diamond Bristol team were true Christmas Elves; picking , packing and collecting hundreds of parcels plus urgent sameday deliveries for those extra special deliveries togged in full Christmas jumper and elve costumes.