French La Poste is gearing up for the busy Christmas period with its parcel and expressbusinesses expecting a surge in parcel volumes on 17 December, the busiest day of the year, boosted
by online shopping and supported by its fast-growing parcel shop network ‘Pickup’.ColiPoste, La Poste’s domestic parcel business, expects to double its parcel volumes beforeChristmas, forecasting it will deliver nearly 2 million ‘Colissimo’ parcels, its B2C product, on 17December. This would mean a new record compared to its average daily volumes of one millionshipments.
As a key period for La Poste’s parcel operations, the holiday season lasting fromNovember-January represents 20% of ColiPoste’s annual turnover. This strong performance is mainlydriven by the growth of e-commerce which is becoming more and more a core part of French citizens’consumption habits every year, La Poste said.
ColiPoste has been preparing for the expected surge in volumes many months in advance byadjusting its transportation and delivery plans to estimated volumes reported by its customers. InNovember, the parcel operator was deploying 199 additional trucks on the roads each day. InDecember, there will be 325 trucks more on a daily basis to transport the parcels.
La Poste’s express subsidiary Chronopost also expects a dramatic increase in activity on 17December and expects to deliver 560,000 parcels on that peak day including B2B and B2C shipments,mainly through e-retailers. Compared to its average daily volumes of 350,000 parcels, this wouldequal an impressive growth of 60%.
During this festive period, Chronopost’s two main objectives are to maintain the service qualityfor B2B shipments at the same level as for the whole year and to absorb the B2C growth to offer agood quality, La Poste stressed. To keep its service quality at a high level, Chronopost is alsoworking closely with its customers to ensure dedicated deliveries for the festive period. Regionaltransit hubs and five additional depots will be opened with 250 new routes and one airconnection.
An important element in the group’s parcel delivery activities this year is Pickup, its networkof parcel collection points. Operating according to the ‘shop-in-shop’ principle, the parcel shopsare installed at stores with different retailers. With the recent opening of the 5,500th Pickuppoint in northern France, La Poste claims to have the largest network of parcel collection pointsin France.
Founded in 2000, Pickup signed a strategic partnership with Chronopost International in 2006 andwas acquired by La Poste in 2009. In 2010 it expanded to a network of 3,000 pick-up points and nowclaims to cover 94% of French towns and cities with the population of at least 10,000inhabitants.
On 18 December, at least 100,000 parcels are expected to arrive at the Pickup points. This is arecord for La Poste subsidiary that already increased its parcel volumes 80% during the year 2011alone. The collection points are open six days a week. During the end-of-the-year holidays, thedelivery to the Pickup points is one of the most flexible solutions as all of them are open onSaturdays and half of them on Sundays before Christmas as well.
French postmen are also preparing for exceptional flows of parcels to be distributed with a 5%increase in volumes expected in 2012. During the week before Christmas, the parcel volumes arepredicted to surpass the average daily volumes by 160%. All parcel deliveries will becarbon-neutral as part of the group’s Total Zero initiative.
La Poste stressed it offers special packaging for parcel delivery in different sizes with homedelivery within 24 hours across France, in express mode all over the world (Prêt-à -expédierChronopost) or within 48 hours (Colissimo) with a tracking number and integrated insurance. Makinguse of social media and mobile devices, La Poste customers have the possibility to track theirparcels not only via internet, but also via Facebook, Twitter or their smartphones and tablets.
