The increase in purchasing online during the epidemic means that parcel delivery services are struggling to keep shipments. Demand for this specialty has grown significantly as a result of recent corporate scandals.
“Parcel carriers are not equipped to handle this,” said Hanna Testani, chief operating operator of the freight audit and analytics company Intelligent ITD. He said people who buy gifts online want to order as early as December 1 so that their packages arrive by Christmas.
Other experts say it will not go to extremes, saying it will not be necessary to order too much in advance. But they say the delay will be closer to Christmas.
“I would say Friday, December 18, before Christmas, should be safe in most cases,” said Cell Sh Jindel, a shipmatrix, software provider who works with parcel shippers. “It’s at least two or three days ahead of last year.”
That’s all the delivery companies can do
Jindel said that as much as parcel delivery services want to help, it can add so much capacity in such a short time.
“You can’t do capacity building overnight,” he said. It takes a year to build a hub.
Delivery services say they are increasing capacity as quickly as possible. UPSA has hired 39,000 new permanent employees in the second quarter of 2020, all working in its sorting facilities or as drivers. It will also hire more than 100,000 additional seasonal employees for the peak holiday time frame. FedEx is adding 70,000.
The uncertainty about the shipment is that it makes it difficult to plan for this year’s holiday season. Demand could also tighten if another wave of epidemics forces traditional brick-and-mortar stores to close again.
“I don’t know about ShipCallips. But a year ago, no one saw this kind of situation at the time,” said John McHugh, president of the Package Coalition, which represents shippers using the postal service for parcel delivery. . “We are in unprecedented territory.”
A logistics expert working with shippers says their customers are being told there will be a limit on the number of packages they will accept delivery services.
“Our customer base without exception is trying to make sure they have capacity because they are expecting a lot of shipments. And they are all having trouble finding capacity,” the expert said on condition of anonymity. “People are terrified of going the wrong way for UPS and FedEx.”
More expensive shipments
One way delivery services hope to deal with crush is to force retailers to send more packages to retail ilers early and charge more as Christmas approaches.
UPS, FedEx and USPS No. All of them have got price extra premium during the holidays. In previous years, they were the general cost of each shipment that retailers would pay themselves instead of giving to customers. But that surcharge could rise to as much as 5 per shipment this year Some retailers allow customers to pass on costs.
“We are confident in our ability to serve customers this holiday season,” the company said in a statement. “We’ve added billions of new milestones and transportation capabilities this year, and putting more choice in fulfillment centers closer to customers, which we’ve been building for 20 years due to a sophisticated and integrated network.”
But not Amazon’s in-house delivery service You will be able to manage all its additional shipments this year, Jindel said.
“It will become a crisis if people ignore the warning to place orders early,” he said.
.
