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Schenker’s package manager, Malin Östergren, runs back and forth between the various stations to help staff sorting out what individuals have clicked at home on Black Friday.
The amount is staggering, he says.
– Even I work on the floor today, it rarely happens, he says with packages in hand.
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Photo: Alexander Mahmoud
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Photo: Alexander Mahmoud
Online shopping has grown explosively since last year, and especially during sales week, where sales were up 70 percent on Monday, compared to the same day last year.
During the spring, individuals have commissioned a lot of painting, parquet floors and home gyms. This is what Charbel El Alam says, who has worked as a driver and foreman at Schenker’s transport company in Stockholm for the past two years.
– But many also ask for small packages where shipping is more expensive than the product itself, he says and laughs.
Today has was given the important task of driving the smallest van in the city of Stockholm, the car that will transport all packages to individuals. Before the evening, he has more than a hundred orders to deliver, he explains when DN visits the carrier.
– When we have to leave packages directly to individuals, problems often arise. Not only does it mean more stops, but you also have to sync it with the people in your place.
– The profession is increasingly time consuming, as we often have problems when people make excuses such as that they have “forgotten” the delivery time, says Charbel El Alam.
Charbel El Alam has worked at Schenker as a professional driver for the last two years. “The profession is changing as today we meet more and more individuals rather than companies during our deliveries,” he says.
Photo: Jonas Lindkvist
Working as a professional driver for freight companies can be exhausting and physically demanding, he says. Package providers must ship packages weighing up to 30 kilos.
– It is clear that it is felt in the body. We still don’t have good solutions on how we will achieve them, he says.
As the number of packages and deliveries increases, the shortage of professional drivers has become a growing problem in Sweden.
This mainly concerns truckers and is partly due to the fact that there are few training places in transport training, according to TYA, the Work and Occupational Environment Committee of the Transport Unions.
About 3,000 drivers need training until April 2021 and 50,000 in ten years, according to TYA, which has asked the country’s transportation companies how they are doing in the pandemic.
– Most drivers have not been able to renew their certificate of professional competence after the government’s decision on the eight-person rule and may not be active, says Lasse Holm, project manager within the supply of competencies at TYA .
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Photo: Alexander Mahmoud
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Photo: Alexander Mahmoud
Schenker’s site manager Franco Carbaja believes they still manage to make the deliveries, despite the fact that Schenker distributed about 75 percent more packages in the days after Black Friday than on the same days. from last year.
– The curve has steadily pointed to the upside since March, but so far we have had no labor shortage, says Franco Carbajal.
Trucker Fernando Moron Knapps and Schenker’s site manager Franco Carbajal agree that these are hectic times within shipping companies. “But in Stockholm, it seems that we are still doing well,” says Franco Carbajal.
Photo: Alexander Mahmoud
Outside the compound, several trucks are in full operation to equip the wagons with cages. The transport chain is long. From the company to the terminal, to the distribution point and then to the agent or the recipient’s address.
Charbel loads the last of the truck. I had never thought that e-commerce would increase as much as it did.
Charbel El Alam says that it is common for individuals to stand outside the door for individuals to receive their packages.
Photo: Jonas Lindkvist
The first stop for Black Friday deliveries is Hagagatan in Vasastan. Charbel enters rush hour traffic at 5pm, then it is dark and traffic is hectic. Dial the phone number of the first customer of the night.
She answers.
– Hi, I’m Charbel. I will deliver your package, he says kindly.
– Oh no, I missed that. Can you put the package outside? the customer asks.
Charbel kindly ends the conversation.
– This is what it looks like, explains Charbel with a smile for DN and keeps driving in the dark.
