The Passport Office’s courier services admitted that it was overwhelmed by post-Covid requests, putting families’ winter escapes at risk.
Holiday-starved Brits have, over recent months, been warned they may face waits of up to 10 weeks for their new documents to be processed – more than triple that of the clearing period pre-coronavirus.
Many are still waiting to receive their passports even though they have been rubber stamped and signed by civil servants.
The Passport Office’s courier services admitted that it was overwhelmed by post-Covid requests, putting families’ winter escapes at risk.
TNT, which won a three-year contract worth £77 million to transport passports in the summer of 2019, has been inundated with complaints over delivery dates frequently being pushed back.
According to The Times, some desperate travelers who booked flights abroad in the next days drove from depot to depot trying to find permits.
TNT’s customer care helpline is often unavailable for up to 24 hours. Some customers are so frustrated that they started a petition to request an investigation.
This reads: “In recent months, thousands of us experienced significant delays getting our passports shipped.
Many people have lost hundreds of thousands or more due to having to cancel travel plans.
TNT does not appear to offer real-time tracking or delivery instructions, unlike many couriers.
“Some people have been unsuccessful in delivering their parcels, while others have repeatedly had to be rescheduled with no clear end.
“Some people have had their application support documents or passports destroyed by TNT.”
Brits on holiday have received warnings that new documents may take up to 10 weeks to process. That’s more than twice the amount of time required to clear the virus pre-coronavirus.
Petitioners ask for an investigation into the failures and diligence of the company before it was signed.
TNT spokesmen told The Times that the backlog was caused by an increase in applications because of loosening lockdown restrictions.
They added, “We are taking additional measures to deliver timely delivery by adding more resources to operations. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Passport Office stated that it had been made aware of problems reported and is working to fix them.