British express parcels carrier City Link delivered record volumes of three million parcelsduring the last year’s Christmas period maintaining service levels throughout the peak period
despite the rapid increase in online shopping of 15%.During the two-week run-up to Christmas Day, the company managed, along with three millionparcels, to clear all of its outstanding deliveries from depots by Christmas Eve and to provide itstime-definite delivery services on time.
The increase in online shopping was also reflected by the volumes carried by the industry as awhole. Duncan Faithfull, Sales & Marketing Director at City Link, said: “More people wereordering their presents online than ever before and we believe this trend is only set tocontinue.”
City Link said that accurate forecasting along with months of careful planning helped it copewith the increase in online shopping. Preparations began in the summer, with the company setting upan action plan to deal with any adverse weather events as well as the anticipated boom in internetshopping by working closely with its customers. City Link believes that this strategy offorecasting and preparation in advance is necessary for the whole industry to keep pace with onlineshopping activity.
“City Link had a busy peak period and we are looking forward to an even busier one in 2012.Service levels were maintained throughout, demonstrating that forecasting and working with ourcustomers to understand their volumes is the key to success,” Faithfull said.
With this forward planning strategy, City Link hopes to maintain service levels during the 2012Olympics when widespread traffic disruptions are expected, particularly in London.
