Amazon deliveries face delay as Yodel warns of Christmas par

[eggraidonmojo]

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Amazon deliveries face delay as Yodel warns of Christmas parcel backlog


Fears of a festive parcel logjam have escalated after Yodel, which claims to be Britain’s leading delivery company after Royal Mail, admitted it had stopped collecting parcels from retailers as it struggles to deliver the vast volume of online Christmas shopping.

After the splurge in spending in the so-called Black Friday last week, when 24-hour promotions pushed sales up 50% higher than expected, and the seasonal rush in online orders peaking on Monday, shoppers now face a wait to see if gifts and parcels arrive in time ahead of Christmas, with Yodel saying deliveries could take three days more than planned.

Yodel has told many retail clients that it will not be collecting parcels until next week as it attempts to deal with the backlog. Yodel executive chairman Dick Stead wrote to clients including retails explaining the suspension of collections until Monday, saying: “This is not a decision that we have taken lightly but one that we have had to take to protect service levels.” It delivers parcels on behalf of retailers including Argos, Amazon, Boots and Tesco, among others.

A message to customers awaiting deliveries posted on the firm’s website warns: “We are continuing to receive extremely high numbers of parcels as a result of the seasonal sales. We’re working hard to get your orders to you asap, but some may experience a slight delay in arriving.”

Yodel, which was named Britain’s worst delivery service in a poll of 9,000 MoneySavingExpert.com readers earlier this year, has told its larger clients, who can guarantee at least one full trailer of parcels, they may have have a collection on Friday.

Having sustained a barrage of criticism for delayed deliveries in 2012, Yodel had put a range of plans in place to ready itself for a surge in deliveries. It was expecting to handle 15% more parcels than last Christmas but despite investing in another 13 handling sites, sourcing an extra 200 HGVs to ship goods from client warehouses to its own sorting centres, and extending working hours, Yodel appears to be currently unable to meet demand.

The company said in a statement: “The recent, well documented, sales promotions have resulted in continuing high parcel volumes, significantly over the level expected and forecast by many of our retail clients.

“We would like to reassure consumers that there is no suspension to our delivery service. We are working with all our clients to manage the flow of fresh parcels into our network with a 24-48 hour hold on some of the collections coming into our sort centres. Deliveries will continue throughout this period, but some may experience short delays of between 24-72 hours. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

“We are working closely with our clients on their forecasted parcel volumes and we are confident that the action we are taking will ensure that normal service is resumed after the weekend.”

Yodel’s joint venture with PayPoint, CollectPlus, which lets consumers collect or return shopping orders via local stores, is telling customers to expect possible delays of up to three days. A warning on its website reads: “We are still seeing higher than planned parcel volumes on all our services, unfortunately resulting in some deliveries taking up to three days longer than usual.”

The unexpected demand has also wrongfooted retailers including Tesco and Marks & Spencer, who admitted earlier this week that they were struggling to clear backlogs of orders after Black Friday.

Customers have also reported that internet retailers such as Amazon have been forced to amend next day delivery pledges.

The transport and logistics industries called on the government recently to tackle a critical shortage of drivers, with hauliers struggling to match rates paid by supermarkets to secure deliveries of stock ahead of the biggest season for consumption.

[Surreypostie]

Where's my violin? Oh there it is

[Pinky 1]

Yodel, they can talk the talk but can they walk the walk ?

[Sir Henry]

"Yodel executive chairman Dick Stead"

A typo?

[raikky]

i spoke to a yodel courier yesterday and he hated the kpob. said the pay was rubbish and working for far less tahn minimum wage. maybe if they paid their drivers decent money they wouldnt have a shortage

[Surreypostie]

i spoke to a yodel courier yesterday and he hated the kpob. said the pay was rubbish and working for far less tahn minimum wage. maybe if they paid their drivers decent money they wouldnt have a shortage

How can they be working for way less that minimum wage?

[Chitchat]

i spoke to a yodel courier yesterday and he hated the kpob. said the pay was rubbish and working for far less tahn minimum wage. maybe if they paid their drivers decent money they wouldnt have a shortage

How can they be working for way less that minimum wage?

Because they are self employed,

[NWpostie]

i spoke to a yodel courier yesterday and he hated the kpob. said the pay was rubbish and working for far less than minimum wage. maybe if they paid their drivers decent money they wouldn't have a shortage

How can they be working for way less that minimum wage?

Because they are self employed,

Pretty much industry standard for private couriers and some have the cheek to charge you for the uniform. its mostly franchise work where you pay teh upfront cost and you get the cost of the uniform deducted, you also have to cover your sick and holiday absences, if you don't the courier company could do it and bill you for it. if you make a drop and is forced to take it back, you don't get paid.

There's more but generally its pretty crap and that is reflected in the delivery standards.

[Surreypostie]

These self employed drivers should all grow a pair, stand together and say more pay or deliver the stuff yourselves. You wouldn't get a plumber or gas engineer turning up at your house and working for less than minimum wage, definitely not the self employed ones. It only happens because they allow themselves to be mugged off.

[Chitchat]

In my area the yodel guy delivering in his car changes every month. They start out thinking this is great 50p a parcel unlimited earnings they think. Sky's the limit. But when they do the job they quickly realise that it is not all its cracked up to be. They average 90 parcels a day thats £45 less fuel for 3 hours of start stop driving, Wear and tear on theirs cars. No holidays no sick pay. And then they leave to be replaced by another mug! High staff turnover is the reason why companies like Yodel are poor when it comes to actually delivering a decent service.

[raikky]

the yodel guy told me he gets 80p to 120p a parcel. i caught him trying to get in a block of flats which i had the fob for and let him in. lets say he does 100 parcels a day and 100p a drop and delivers every single one thats 100 quid. now take out fuel, car running costs, insurance. no holidays, no pension no sick etc. and youl find alot if not most will earn less than minimum wage. and they will be working early till late

[Chitchat]

the yodel guy told me he gets 80p to 120p a parcel. i caught him trying to get in a block of flats which i had the fob for and let him in. lets say he does 100 parcels a day and 100p a drop and delivers every single one thats 100 quid. now take out fuel, car running costs, insurance. no holidays, no pension no sick etc. and youl find alot if not most will earn less than minimum wage. and they will be working early till late

The yodel guy in my area and the one before him told me its 50p a parcel if you deliver from a car and 75p if you deliver from a van. Not sure why the difference.

[Surreypostie]

I should imagine running a van costs more, you can also fit more in a van.