Irish parcel carrier Nightline expecting later, bigger Christmas peak
Ireland’s largest private-sector delivery company is expecting the country’s Christmas peak in parcel volumes to be later and higher than ever before. Nightline now claims to deliver one in three Irish parcels, and said this year it is expecting the booming popularity of online shopping will see the busiest days of the year during the week leading up to Christmas Day.
This would be almost a week later than last year.
John Tuohy, the Nightline CEO, said with more confidence in the Internet retail system, many consumers were ignoring advice to get their festive shopping done early.
He said there could be capacity problems within Ireland, although he insisted that Nightline would be “more than able” to cope with its volumes, despite the expectation that twice as many parcels will be coming through its network in the last two weeks before Christmas.
“The fact that many Irish consumers are now so reliant upon and so at ease with the idea of e-commerce means that they are now content to buy more and leave their shopping later than in previous years,” said Tuohy.
“The sort of incentives offered by US retailers in order to get e-shoppers online across Thanksgiving weekend and so reduce the strain on the parcel industry close to Christmas has had relatively little impact here.
“Customers know that they can buy online in comfort rather than on the high street and have someone else responsible for getting purchases to their door. Having so many individuals adopt a similar approach creates significant volumes.
“Last year, the absolute peak was on 17th December but all the indications are that it will be even later and higher this time around. For instance, we fully expect to handle more than 1m parcels in the 16 days before 25th December,” said the Nightline chief executive.
Prediction
Dublin-based Nightline, which has been operating since 1992, states that it has steadily increased its share of the Irish parcel market over the past 12 months thanks to a string of new contracts with major retailers, including a number in the UK.
The company developed its parcel volume forecast system in the run-up to last year’s festive season, working with Dr Tom Sawyer of Cambridge University’s Judge Business School.
The system can help estimate when peak parcel volumes will occur and allows Nightline to devote the right resources to meet the challenge.
Nightline says the system can “accurately predict” the volume of parcels, and the resources needed to deliver them, months in advance.
Mr Tuohy added that fulfilling deliveries is becoming even easier by the launch of the company’s Parcel Motel network of state-of-the-art parcel terminals this year.
The units, using technology from Poland’s InPost, were introduced in the Dublin area in July, allowing online shoppers to choose to receive items at their local Parcel Motel, when they cannot be at home to receive them. There are now 59 Parcel Motels around Ireland, including 45 in the Dublin area, with plans to expand to about 400 by the end of 2014.
The service sends recipients a text message when their parcel has arrived at their chosen Parcel Motel, and charges EUR 3.50 for every 48 hours an item remains at a Parcel Motel before its recipient picks it up.
