Sunday deliveries for Christmas post

LA POSTE will experiment with Sunday parcel deliveries for the first time on December 20 to allow for timely delivery of Christmas presents, the group has announced.

According to Le Journal du Dimanche, the experiment will apply to seven French cities - Paris, Lille, Rennes, Lyon, Bordeaux, Reims and Nice - between 9.00 and midday.

Postal workers can volunteer for the extra shift and will be paid double time, with a day off in lieu. Each round will comprise about 30 parcel drop-offs. In a normal weekday, workers would drop off about 100 parcels.

The number of parcels handled by La Poste doubles from a million a day to two million in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

La Poste management held a meeting with unions on Friday to discuss the idea. The experiment only applies to parcels - not letters (or Christmas cards).

If successful, the idea could be extended to other times of the year and other parts of France - as La Poste seeks to modernise its business in the face of growing competition and the boom in online shopping.