Delivery firms predict Christmas chaos

[the deliverer]

In the Daily Mail, 7th December 2011

Delivery firms predict Christmas chaos as couriers warn they are ALREADY struggling to cope. Retailers impose caps on number of new daily orders 'Crossing their fingers' that snow does not hit. All supermarket home delivery slots in Christmas week snapped up.

Courier firms have warned that there could be a repeat of last year’s delays to Christmas deliveries, as they are already struggling to cope with a surge in the number of goods purchased online.

The industry is swamped, with four million parcels to be delivered per day, and a number of carriers are so busy that they are imposing a daily cap on the number of new orders they will take from internet retailers.

They say any major snowfall would tip the balance and prevent them delivering presents in time for Christmas, with one industry leader claiming couriers are ‘crossing their fingers that the skies and roads remain clear’.

Last winter, the long weeks of snow and ice disrupted deliveries so badly that millions did not get their presents and other parcels until after the big day. This year, the courier system is already creaking, with Christmas internet purchases expected to top £7.75billion, up by around 15 per cent on last year.

However, courier firms have not increased their capacity by the same amount, and many do not have the manpower and vehicles in place to cover the spike in demand.
The big supermarkets also suffer from a shortage of manpower and vehicles to meet festive demand, with the result that most of the food delivery slots for Christmas week have already been snapped up. Some stores, such as Tesco, have put up their delivery charges to cover the extra costs.

Simon Veale, director of leading courier firm Global Freight Solutions (GFS), said that even without bad weather, carriers were being pushed to capacity because of the massive shift in how Britons do their seasonal shopping.

Supermarkets such as Sainsbury's and Tesco's often suffer a shortage of manpower and vehicles to meet festive demand. He said that many couriers had spent months putting measures in place designed to improve their ability to cope with December’s delivery schedules.

But he added: ‘The fact that some major high street retailers have closed stores during the last year has only served to drive greater levels of online custom and, therefore, the pressure on carriers’ capacity.

‘We are aware of some setting limits on the numbers of items which they’re prepared to deliver and others experiencing difficulties because of the sheer volume of extra internet retail business which has come their way without consequent changes in their infrastructure.’

He warned: ‘It is 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.’

In the weeks leading up to last Christmas, two heavy bursts of snow combined with a 25 per cent increase in online shopping to create a backlog of 4.5million parcels which wasn’t entirely cleared until New Year’s Eve.

Analysis by GFS – which handles millions of parcels on behalf of clients in retail, leisure, financial services and engineering, including many leading household brands – found that certain couriers had not been prepared for the volume of online sales.

It also found that some retailers admitted cutting back on delivery contingencies during preparations for the Christmas period in order to keep costs down.

[pinstripe]

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[POSTMAN]

However, courier firms have not increased their capacity by the same amount, and many do not have the manpower and vehicles in place to cover the spike in demand.

[DGP1]

We're struggling already............packets are through the roof, we already have extra people in doing packets/cut offs but I can't see it continuing with this only being the start of Christmas. All three days this week I have cut off and I don't see it getting any better, a york full of packets is too much along with all the normal mail (all the junk seems to be coming through as normal and the extra D2Ds).


Still, I'm just going to do what RM want.............I'm only working my hours