“More advance planning needed for winter deliveries”

Severe winter weather and unprecedented volumes in internet shopping were the main factorscausing the pre-Christmas parcel chaos in Britain last December which could have been mitigated by

In future, parcel operators should plan well ahead for the busy Christmas period and be preparedto deliver exceptional shipping volumes, GFS recommended in a new ‘white paper’ entitled ‘The BigChill: parcel carriers, customers and Christmas’.

The research showed that heavy snow hampered parcel carriers on the one hand but boosted onlinesales at the same time generating huge extra volumes of packages. This combination made it evenmore difficult for the couriers to carry out deliveries as efficiently as normal.

After thoroughly analysing the parcel storm during the 2010 festive period, GFS concluded thatthe impact of the extreme weather on businesses and households could have been reduced.

GFS Managing Director Neil Cotty claimed a lack of planning resulted in maximum stress for theparcel industry when it was least able to cope with it. “No-one could have foreseen the toll takenby the snows on parcel deliveries with any precision. However, people knew that Christmas wouldinvolve an increase in shipments. It appears that both carriers and their customers were simply notwell enough prepared,” he commented.

GFS examined next-day deliveries across the UK in the eight weeks leading up to December 24th.The period included a peak in parcel traffic at the beginning of November, when high street storesstarted stocking shelves, and a peak in home deliveries following the biggest single day for onlineshopping on November 29th.

In their efforts to move those shipments, parcel carriers were badly affected by the first oftwo belts of heavy snow. The situation was made even worse by the number of consumers who chose todo their last minute shopping at home and online instead of going on the snowy high streets Thataccounted for a second, smaller peak in the B2C traffic, generated by a rise in orders placed on orabout the 10th December.

That extra business led to £6.8 billion worth of goods bought online during December equallingan increase of 25% compared to the same period a year before and created an extra four millionparcels a day for carriers to deliver. The shopping boom provided a third peak in pre-Christmasparcel volumes, which coincided with the second bout of heavy snow in the UK on 17th December. Theresult was a backlog of presents which didn’t arrive in time for Christmas and was completelycleared only by New Year’s Eve, GFS stressed.

Cotty said certain carriers had been overwhelmed by the proportion of pre-Christmas parceltraffic now accounted for by online sales. “Few if any parcel carriers will take on new clientsanyway during December because they know they’ll be busy. Because of the additional pressurescreated by snow and the backlogs it generated, the chance of finding additional carriage lastDecember was non-existent.”

He pointed out that the experiences of parcel carriers and clients showed that change was neededto prevent a repeat of the pre-Christmas problems. “Our study brought home the importance ofyear-round continuity planning to both carriers and the firms they serve.”

“Failure to fulfil customer orders and deliver parcels on time has significant cost, both interms of lost business and damaged reputations. Yet subtle changes to the way carriers and clientsoperate at this time of year can mean big improvements,” he added.

“Having carriers working extra days in the run-up to Christmas, just as retailers now commonlydo, will relieve some of the strain they’re under. Likewise, retailers encouraging customers toshop online earlier will reduce the number of parcels in the system at the busiest time of the yearand increase the chances of presents getting to their destination in time,” Cotty advised.

Founded in 2001, Global Freight Solutions handles millions of parcels on behalf of clients inretail, leisure, financial services and engineering.