Various postal operators across Europe have released details of record-breaking parcel volumes during the 2018 peak season while Amazon is hailing worldwide sales records.
Swiss Post handled a record 25 million parcels between Black Friday (November 23) and Christmas as well as more than 400 million letter items. The daily average of up to 17 million letters included an average of 120,000 international items with small product enclosures, of which about 80,000 came from Asia as e-commerce booms, the company noted.
Swiss postal staff worked additional shifts, including sorting and delivering parcels on five Saturdays during this peak period, with the three regional parcel centres at Frauenfeld, Härkingen and Daillens operating nearly round the clock. Swiss Post has invested about CHF 60 million to expand their capacity in recent years and is now investing more than CHF 150 million on three new additional regional parcel facilities in Cadenazzo, Untervaz and Vétroz to expand capacity for expected future growth.
PostNL was expecting to deliver a total of some 50 million parcels in November and December, with a series of mini-peaks including the long ‘Cyber Weekend’ in late November, the traditional Dutch Saint Nicolas celebration on December 5, and then the Christmas week. This included about 17.5 million parcels delivered between December 5 and Christmas Eve.
The Dutch postal operators said its mail deliverers, sorters, truck drivers and parcel deliverers turned in “a top performance” during the festive period. “Thanks to the great commitment of all our employees we managed to handle a record number of cards and parcels this festive period,” commented Resi Becker, mail director at PostNL. “The post and parcel sorting centres were operating non-stop at full strength and there was a great solidarity on the shop floor. The shared aim was to deliver all Christmas cards and presents on time to people at home. I am very proud that we have been able to keep our Christmas promises.”
Posten Norge (Norway Post) sorted a record number of four million packages among a total of 50 million addressed postal items during the Christmas season, with many of these parcels being delivered to postal shops for collection. The ‘collection backlog’ grew to more than 330,000 packages by mid-December but Norwegians then responded to a series of ‘pick up your parcel’ appeals by the company that reduced the volumes stored for collection to about 200,000 items by Christmas.
CEO Tone Wille, who helped out with deliveries in central Oslo on Christmas Eve, said: “I am very pleased that the Christmas items are on their way. Many people have followed Posten's call to be early in sending mail and to pick up their packages quickly. This has contributed to a good flow in the postal service.”
In Ireland, An Post said parcel volumes soared by 50% during the holiday season, with deliveries of up to 100,000 parcels a day.
Mail and parcels managing director Garrett Bridgeman commented: “Christmas business exceeded the expectations of many of our retail customers. One major customer said they have never seen anything like the peak business generated by Irish shoppers. One large retailer alone sent in 22 parcel trucks in one day. We were expecting four.”
Meanwhile, Amazon announced a ‘record-breaking’ holiday season, including strong worldwide sales of its own branded products such as electronic devices, fashions and household goods. In addition, it registered ‘tens of millions’ of new Prime trials or paid memberships offering free delivery options, and shipped more than one billion items for free through Prime in the U.S. alone. There were over 100 million paying Prime members around the world as of early December, according to the company.
“This season was our best yet, and we look forward to continuing to bring our customers what they want, in ways most convenient for them in 2019. We are thrilled that in the U.S. alone, more than one billion items shipped for free this holiday with Prime,” said Jeff Wilke, CEO Worldwide Consumer.
