An apparatus for gathering postal items comprising: a postal item feeding path for feeding postal items at a speed of transport; at least one postal item gripper for gripping postal items, the postal item gripper being circulatable in a sense of circulation along a circulation path at a speed of transport, a receiving section of the circulation path extending along a downstream end of the postal item feeding path; at least one drive for driving displacement of postal items along the postal item feeding path and the circulation of the postal item gripper, such that the postal items fed along the postal item feeding path are fed to and gripped by the at least one gripper; a postal item collector for receiving the postal items from the at least one gripper each time when the gripper holding one of the postal items passes the collector and releases that one of the postal items, the postal item collector being located along a delivery section of the circulation path, the delivery section being spaced in the sense of circulation from the receiving section of the circulation path; and a collation holder for receiving and holding the released postal items in a collated configuration characterized in that the at least one drive is arranged for, each time prior to gripping the leading edge of one of the postal items by the jaws of the gripper, at least: - temporarily reducing the speed of transport of the gripper to a reduced speed of transport, or - temporarily increasing the speed of transport of the postal item along the feeding path to an increased speed of transport, such that by causing a temporary difference between the speed of transport of the feeding path and the speed of transport of the circulation path, while maintaining movement of both the gripper along the circulation path and of the postal item along the feeding path, a hand-over of postal items from the feeding path to the gripper can be carried out. a postal item feeding path for feeding postal items at a speed of transport; at least one postal item gripper for gripping postal items, the postal item gripper being circulatable in a sense of circulation along a circulation path at a speed of transport, a receiving section of the circulation path extending along a downstream end of the postal item feeding path; at least one drive for driving displacement of postal items along the postal item feeding path and the circulation of the postal item gripper, such that the postal items fed along the postal item feeding path are fed to and gripped by the at least one gripper; a postal item collector for receiving the postal items from the at least one gripper each time when the gripper holding one of the postal items passes the collector and releases that one of the postal items, the postal item collector being located along a delivery section of the circulation path, the delivery section being spaced in the sense of circulation from the receiving section of the circulation path; and a collation holder for receiving and holding the released postal items in a collated configuration - temporarily reducing the speed of transport of the gripper to a reduced speed of transport, or - temporarily increasing the speed of transport of the postal item along the feeding path to an increased speed of transport,