Yodel executive chairman Dick Stead has warned of the chaos that huge online sales like Black Friday have brought to the industry, particularly when retailers promise consumers next-day delivery.
But Yodel wasn’t the only operator felt that felt the pressure from its customers over 2014's peak period, even though its stuggles were well-documented in the national media.
Europa Worldwide Logistics, which provides domestic and overseas trunking work for post and parcel carriers, told The Hub that it was challenged by a 35% uplift in volume over the peak, placing great pressure on its resources.
Dionne Redpath, Europa’s sales and branch network director (pictured), highlighted some of the issues with increasing capacity to meet demand, many of which are often out of the operator’s control.
“It can be challenging because it means getting more vehicles on the road and it requires more man hours,” she said.
“Also, as Christmas fell on a Thursday this year, there was a lot less haulage available because Eastern European hauliers had finished earlier for the holidays. We had a huge influx in business and fewer resources to work with,” Redpath added.
It offers a third-party service to some of the major parcel firms, who were also struggling to meet demand from their customers.
“In turn, this meant there was added pressure on us to offer extended or special services. We had vehicles running to Europe throughout the Christmas period, including departures to Scandinavia, Poland, Spain and Italy, just to name a few.”
Stuart Hill, chief executive at parcel carrier software firm wnDirect, agrees that events like Black Friday post a significant capacity challenge, especially in the international delivery sector.
"The reality is there is a finite amount of space on the aeroplanes flying to destinations and, therefore, volumes can only grow as fast as the capacity does. It will be interesting to see how, in future years, customer expectations are managed," he said.
For more on the issues faced over 2014’s Christmas peak, see the parcel sector report in Motor Transport's 9 February issue.