The public is running out of time to ensure their cards and packages get to family and friends in time for Christmas, Royal Mail has warned.

The postal operators are working around-the-clock during the busiest few days to make sure cards and packages reach the right doors.

On Monday, the busiest postal day of the year, 13million items of post were dealt with by sorting office staff across Scotland.

The cut off day for sending second class mail in time for Christmas is Friday, while Monday is that last advised day if you use the first class service.

Alan Gairns, who is in charge of the operation, said everything was in place to make sure the service copes with the Christmas workload.

He said: "We have additional vehicles, we put on additional collections and we have additional resource brought into the mail centres. We ask our customers to post early in the day to give us an opportunity to get those special packages on their way.

Mr Gairns also said everything was going to plan but added that members of the public could help them do an even better job.

He said: "Making sure the post codes are on the items, that's really important to us and post as early as possible in the day. Also make sure we are getting that traffic in our hands early."