[ad_1]
Swiss Post shipped 7.3 million packages in the week around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This is almost a quarter more than in 2019 and a new record, the company announced on Friday.
This is the period between November 23 and December 1. On average, mail carriers delivered more than 900,000 packages per day, and in the days immediately following Black Friday and Cyber Monday it was even more than a million.
Sorting machines at parcel centers ran 22 hours a day, according to the message. The staff worked special shifts and also on Saturdays so that everything could be fixed on time. And so it will continue for the next few weeks.
The regional parcel centers opened in Vétroz and Untervaz in September and November successfully passed the first stress test. They could have taken over from the large parcel centers in Daillens, Härkingen, Frauenfeld and Urdorf as expected, along with the regional parcel centers in Cadanezzo and Ostermundigen, which opened in 2019 and March 2020, respectively. In total, the regional centers would process about 190,000 packages per day.
Annual record expected on December 15
“After Black Friday is before Christmas,” writes the Post. Package volumes would remain high and continue to increase day by day. On Tuesday, December 15, the Post expects the most of the year.
The other forecasts: A slight decrease in quantities in the old week of the year and a renewed increase in January, then the curve flattens again until it rises sharply again at Easter. One thing already seems clear: “Package volumes are no longer returning to pre-Corona level,” says package manager Stefan Luginbühl.
Online commerce will continue to grow steadily and with it the number of packages. At the same time, customers wanted to receive their products faster and faster. For the Post to be able to process mountains of packages reliably in the future, it must increase its capabilities again.
By 2030, Swiss Post wants to open more regional parcel centers, probably in the vicinity of large metropolitan areas such as Basel, Bern or Zurich. One will communicate it “in due time.”
