Fast-growing British same-day delivery firm CitySprint plans to take on up to 300 extra couriersto cope with this year’s pre-Christmas seasonal peak but admits the industry has no ‘Plan B’ cope
with any prolonged strike at Royal Mail.Commenting on the planned one-day strike by Royal Mail workers on November 4 and the threat offurther industrial action in November or December, CitySprint CEO Patrick Gallagher said retailershad been preparing for this situation since the strike ballot was announced in September.
“Their biggest nightmare at this point is that disruption spills over beyond 4 November andgreat effort will now be invested to limit the damage to retailers’ brand during this period,” hesaid. “We have put plans in place to help those put in a tight spot by it, although, like all othernetworks, we can only do this to a certain scale, especially during peak times.
“No one can pick up the pieces entirely but almost certainly, if the strike action isextended beyond 4 November there is no seamless Plan B. No network in the UK has the domesticdelivery reach or capability of the Royal Mail, underlining the dependency of the UK supplychain on one company,” he declared.
Gallagher warned it would be “catastrophic” if Royal Mail’s e-commerce growth was undone withany prolonged strike action at such a critical time of the year. He predicted that theforthcoming industrial action could force some retailers “to rethink their over-reliance” on RoyalMail and also prompt the distribution industry to “go to greater lengths to make it even easierfor retailers to plug into multiple partners and manage capacity”.
Meanwhile, CitySprint itself plans to take on up to 300 additional couriers to cope with anexpected surge in deliveries in the run up to the festive season. The company, with more than 5million same-day deliveries and revenues of some £100 million a year, has a network of more than2,500 couriers. Last December its volumes doubled to over 250,000 deliveries.
Gallagher explained: “As more and more shoppers opt to do their Christmas shopping online, we’reanticipating even higher volumes this year. We’re pulling out all the stops to ensure that we’reprepared for the festive season, and working with our retail customers to do the same.
“As our to-do lists grow in the run up to the festive period, more than ever consumers expectdeliveries to be flexible and adaptable, to fit their busy schedules not those set by a retailer ordistribution partner. The retail and distribution industries need to work even harder together toensure they are offering consumers the right solutions this Christmas,” he added.
CitySprint claims its same-day delivery network can reach over 80% of mainland UK within 60minutes.
