Against the backdrop of slow or negative economic and e-commerce growth in many regions of Europe, express delivery operators from multiple countries such as Austria, Poland, France, and Sweden have bucked the trend and delivered good or even record breaking package volume performance during peak seasons.Promotion season ushers in a wave of packagesAccording to Austrian Post, the company set a new record for daily transportation volume in December, delivering over 1.4 million packages per day. The company stated that it currently delivers over 1 million packages per day and is expected to process approximately 17.6 million packages in December, an increase of over 6% compared to 2022. Poland Post has also recorded a record volume of packages and stated that the volume will continue to grow throughout the peak season. According to reports, from Black Friday to December 10th, the company’s package transportation volume increased by 40% compared to the same period in 2022.International express deliveryThe same wave of packages has also emerged in France. France Post previously announced that it expects to deliver 106 million packages in November and December, an increase of 6 million from the same period last year. The express parcel subsidiary of the group, Chronopost, had previously expected a 12% increase in parcel volume between November and December, with DPD France reaching a peak of over 600000 packages per day by the end of November. DHL’s delivery volume in December reached a historic high. DHL stated that compared to the average level in previous years, the number of packages processed by the company during peak hours has increased by about 25%, and it is expected to process over 4.2 million packages in December. In order to transport these packages to various parts of the world, before the year-end shopping season, DHL added 2 flights per day to France, bringing its total number of flights to France to 36. In addition, DHL is continuing to expand its cooperation network within France, including partnerships with parcel locker company SwipBox and parcel collection company Pickme.Spanish parcel companies also hope to deliver record numbers of packages during peak season. According to the logistics and transportation association UNO, the total number of packages may increase by 6.8% from Black Friday to January 6, 2024, reaching 108 million pieces. According to data from the Spanish logistics portal website Cadena de Sumistro, the number of e-commerce packages in the country reached 8 million on the weekend after Black Friday and 13 million on the following Monday. In addition, the air cargo tonnage at Spanish airports increased by 13.9% year-on-year in November, with Madrid and Zaragoza airports showing particularly outstanding growth.Despite a 1.5% decrease in package volume compared to 2022, Swiss Post reported processing 7 million packages in the days before and after Black Friday. In order to ensure the completion of transportation tasks, Swiss Post has added 400 transportation routes, temporarily rented approximately 330 delivery vehicles, and launched Saturday delivery services. In addition, Swiss Post has opened two new regional parcel centers in Pratteln and Wallisellen. The company stated that although the freight volume for the entire year of 2023 will slightly decrease, the package volume will still be high before the shopping season.New hub utilizing new technologiesIn order to handle peak season packages, Austria Post has added over 1200 on duty workers and invested in increasing production capacity at its new hub in Vienna. This hub broke ground in March 2022, and some facilities were put into operation in November 2023. It is understood that before the peak season, Austria Post had increased the transportation capacity of the hub to sort over 250000 packages per day. At the beginning of the peak season, the hub could process up to 25500 packages per hour, which is more than twice the operating volume of the previous sorting center.Poland Post has also focused on improving sorting capabilities. In order to meet the growing demand for parcel delivery, Polish Post has opened a new sorting center near Radzymin and installed modern sorting machines in sorting centers in places such as Wroc ł aw. In addition, starting from December 3rd, the company also launched Sunday package delivery services to meet the delivery needs during the peak season.Enterprises are also investing in Shuzhi Technology during the peak season to enhance production capacity. Posten Bring (formerly Nordic Post) has introduced 90 robots in its warehouse in Rothsberg, Sweden to assist employees in picking goods together. Posten Bring stated that the AutoStore intelligent warehouse provides operators with the possibility of maximizing inventory control. The company also uses two packaging machines to automatically detect the contents of packages, minimizing the amount of air in each package to fold it to the smallest size, thereby increasing the package transportation volume of each vehicle.
