More prepared, UK parcel carriers still hoping to avoid white Christmas
Britain’s parcel delivery companies are praying that significant amounts of snow will stay away until Christmas has been and gone, according to parcel and carrier management specialists Global Freight Solutions. The company said two bursts of snow in late November and December last year combined with a 25% increase in online shopping sales to create a backlog of 4.5m parcels in the UK, which wasn’t entirely cleared until New Year’s Eve.
GFS analysis issued earlier this year suggested carriers had not generally prepared for the volume of online sales last December, while retailers were guilty of cutting down on contingency measures in order to keep costs down.
A white paper available on the GFS website says staff shortages and an inability to replace trailers stranded by the snow caused major headaches for carriers, while for those vehicles that were stranded, questions were raised about the security of shipments.
For online retailers, difficulties in switching to alternative arrangements meant sales were hit as their customers returned to the high street to complete their Christmas shopping.
Writing for Post&Parcel today, GFS director Simon Veale said last year’s festive run-up turned into “carnage”, on a scale he had not seen before in nearly four decades in the business.
This year, online retail is expected to grow significantly from last year’s record volumes, in which the peak pre-Christmas day saw 4m parcels being shipped. GFS believes the increasing popularity of online shopping in the UK is being compounded by the closure of major brick-and-mortar retail stores during the last year, driving up ecommerce volumes even further.
Veale said: “It’s fair to say that carriers are crossing their fingers that the skies and roads remain clear, allowing them to meet what is a tremendous challenge in the weeks to come, and avoid a repeat of last year.”
Preparations
This year, Britain has had a relatively warm autumn, but the Met Office issued an alert this morning that there is a 60% probability of severe cold weather and icy conditions from later tomorrow until the weekend in parts of England, particularly in the North West.
The GFS director said many UK parcel carriers have been putting in measures to improve their capabilities for the December rush over the last few months, and that there was some evidence this year of consumers heeding advice to place orders early for Christmas.
“Some carriers perform better – overall or locally – than others,” he said. “We are aware of more retailers insisting on being able to switch to those doing capably, if necessary, something which we have already built into our systems, because of the way we manage our clients’ parcels.”
Read Simon Veale’s commentary on parcel shipping in the run-up to Christmas here »
