The Post Office is getting its first ever automatic parcel machine.

While the Post Office has been operating an automatic letter sorting machine since 2012, up until now parcels were sorted by hand - albeit with the assistance of technology which identifies which delivery rounds to sort the parcels to.

The new machine will utilise optical character recognition technology to read postal addresses in order to sort items into postal routes, for delivery around the island.

This type of technology is commonly used by other postal authorities and larger parcel delivery businesses.

Manufactured in the US, the machine will be transported to and installed in the IoMPO Douglas headquarters for commissioning this autumn.

It is expected to process inward and outward packets and parcels.

As it is being built, the machine will analyse sample addresses, fonts, positioning of labels and handwriting styles to teach the technology to automatically read typical addresses in the island, allowing the machine to sort items at its optimal rate.

A sample of postal name and address images from items received by IoMPO will be securely provided to manufacturers BlueCrest, accessed by the USA site, for this stage of the project.

The Post Office said the machine will ’allow for the introduction of streamlined processes and development of new ways of working through the use of technology for parcel sortation’.

However, IoMPO assured that compulsory redundancies weren’t planned as a result of this automation, as ’parcel volumes are in growth’ - though deliveries will be revised to take advantage of the new machine.

Asked if this would lead to faster parcel delivery times, the Post Office said: ’Parcels when they arrive will be sorted faster but they won’t necessarily be delivered to customers quicker as IoMPO already processes items on day of arrival (subject to no disruption).

’The main advantage is it creates greater capacity for IoMPO to win more work.’

Chief executive Simon Kneen said: ’This is a significant investment agreed by the board, which is a key part of our strategy to become the leading parcel delivery business in the island.

’As our letter sorting machine was key to the efficiency of letter sortation when first introduced 10 years ago, so we expect our parcel sorting machine to be so too, as parcel volumes have grown significantly in recent years and are forecast to continue to grow in the years ahead.

’Online shopping is now the norm for the majority of our island’s residents, with even more using this method of shopping since the Covid pandemic.

’These are exciting times for IoMPO and I look forward to the machine arriving on site and being introduced later in the year’.