La Poste expects to set a new record for French parcel volumes in the run-up to Christmas while at European level it is anticipating a “historic peak' for DPD’s Pickup point network today (December 13).
France's state postal utility handles more than 20% of its annual French parcel traffic in the six weeks before Christmas and in 2016 peaks of up to 2.5 million parcels per day were attained compared to 1 million per day during normal periods. “This record should be beaten in 2017,” the group noted.
La Poste's domestic parcel unit Colissimo has stepped up its transport plans bringing 500 additional trucks into service. Its fleet of vehicles are currently operating more than 18,000 runs daily to guarantee the delivery of parcels. More than 100,000 postal workers, drivers and counter staff are mobilised to sort and distribute twice as many parcels as normal.
La Poste underlined the “explosion in online orders” and the importance of the period preceding the end-of-year holiday season to e-commerce traders during which they generate between 20% and 30% of their annual turnover.
“Deliveries to online traders' end-customers will be carried out for all parcels deposited with La Poste up to December 20,” it said.
On a European scale, La Poste's DPDgroup recorded an increase of 20% in parcel volumes in the 2016 pre-Christmas period on what it would normally handle, rising to 35% on certain peak days. Europe's No.2 operator in the sector is expecting similar growth this year. Taking into account the annual increase in traffic and the peaks, it is projecting to deliver more than 6 million parcels daily on the heaviest days.
Strong growth is also anticipated in the utilisation of pick-up and locker delivery options with some 6.8 million parcels made available to customers through the DPDgroup's Pickup network between November 15 and December 31, 2017, La Poste revealed. A historic peak of 278,000 parcels is expected today, December 13, an increase of 13% on last year's high point.
The group has 7,900 pick-up points and 340 lockers in place this year to accommodate the parcel flows compared to a total of 7,800 in September 2017.
