Postal and parcel operators across Europe are making their final pre-Christmas deliveries this week after working flat-out to sort pandemic-driven record volumes during the peak season.
Parcel volumes have soared at high double-digit growth rates to record levels in November and December as consumers switched to online shopping in response to widespread COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, including closure of retail shops, as well as sales events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
The latest lockdowns and restrictions in many countries over the last fortnight have now generated a final spike in volumes just days before Christmas, putting even more pressure on workers and systems already operating at full load.
In the Nordics, for example, e-commerce is continuing to boom. Online purchases in Sweden accounted for 57% of all Christmas gifts compared to 40% last year, while 25% of people did all their Christmas shopping online, according to a consumer survey commissioned by PostNord.
In general, national postal operators have been the main beneficiaries of the e-commerce parcel boom in their respective home markets but leading parcel carriers are also seeing high growth rates across Europe.
Royal Mail is “working hard to deliver”
In the UK, Royal Mail said yesterday in a trading update (for the 8 months ending November): “We have continued to see strong parcel growth during October and November. In Royal Mail, revenue in the eight months to November was £380 million higher compared to the same period last year, again driven by e-commerce activity, lockdown restrictions during November and the beginning of peak period.” The company’s UK parcel volumes already increased by a third between April and September.
Its international subsidiary GLS increased revenue by 21.9% in the eight months to November, “driven by continued growth in B2C and international volumes, including some positive impacts on volume from new lockdown restrictions across our footprint”.
Following media reports of delivery delays and suspension of its Special Delivery service, the British postal operator told customers in its latest service update today: “Royal Mail is working hard to deliver the most comprehensive and high quality service we can to all our customers, large and small. The combination of greatly increased uptake of online Christmas shopping, in no small part driven by the recent lockdown, and the ongoing COVID restrictions mean that all delivery companies are experiencing exceptionally high volumes this year.
“Every single parcel, letter and card is important to us. Despite our best efforts and significant investment in extra resource, some customers may experience slightly longer delivery timescales than our usual service standards. This is due to the exceptionally high volumes we are seeing, exacerbated by the coronavirus-related measures we have put in place in local mail centres and delivery offices. In such cases, we always work hard to get back to providing our usual level of service as quickly as we can.”
Other parcel carriers, including DPD, Hermes and Yodel, are also seeing record volumes in the UK at present.
High growth in big European markets
Parcel volumes are continuing to increase rapidly in other large European markets. In Germany, Deutsche Post DHL set another new record last week, delivering 61 million parcels, breaking the 56 million record set just one week earlier. The company expects peak season volumes to rise by 15-20% overall. DPD, Hermes and GLS are all expecting to deliver about 20% more parcels in Germany during this year’s peak season.
In France, La Poste set a new parcel delivery record with four million items a day last week. The postal operator expects its peak season volumes to rise by about 20% to 100 million parcels. In Italy, Poste Italiane CEO Matteo del Fante told La Repubblica newspaper that the postal operator is currently delivering 1.5 million parcels a day compared to 1 million daily during last year’s peak season.
In Spain, Correos said last week that it had so far delivered more than 34 million parcels during November and December, a 45% increase on last year. The postal operator and its express subsidiary Correos Express have expanded their operational capacity this year with several new facilities and expansion of others.
New records in smaller markets
The picture is similar in smaller markets across Europe. In the Netherlands, for example, PostNL’s parcel volumes have risen to 1.7 million a day following the closure of non-essential stores. The postal operator is now seeking additional parcel collection points and is appealing to consumers not to make any returns before January 7 to relieve the pressure on sorting capacity.
Liesbeth Kaashoek, Director of Parcels & Logistics, said: “The number of parcels we’re now processing for our customers on a daily basis has almost doubled since the beginning of this year. In the sorting centres, every day the maximum number of parcels are currently being sorted and loaded in the delivery vans. The pressure on our network is very high. And our employees are doing their utmost every day to deliver our customers’ parcels to people’s homes. With additional journeys, people and trucks, as well as smart packaging solutions, we’ve managed to stretch our volumes to a level of 1.7 million parcels per day. That’s the new maximum that allows us to continue serving our customers during this latest lockdown. And it’s also the maximum that enables us to continue to guarantee the safety and health of our employees at all times.”
Elsewhere, Austrian Post’s parcel volumes are running about 25% higher, at more than 1.3 million a day. In Switzerland, Swiss Post has a 20% parcel volume increase during December after seeing volume surge by 24% to 7.3 million in the week from November 23 – December 1.
In Belgium, bpost is reportedly handling about 650,000 parcels a day at present, which is 160% more than the same time last year, while in Finland, Posti set a new record with seven million parcels delivered in the last four weeks, including 1.9 million in each of the last two weeks.
