Parcel companies say they can cope with holiday pressures with more staff

With more staff, additional delivery vans, and expanded sorting centers, parcel delivery companies are well prepared for the most important time of the year. DHL Netherlands is expecting a busier holiday season than last year and is deploying more temporary workers, for example. The German group and market leader PostNL is not expecting any delays.

Preparations were more difficult than usual for PostNL because it delivered fewer parcels in the Netherlands from July to September than last year. "This makes the start-up phase extremely steep," Finance Director Pim Berendsen told ANP. "Our September volume should increase quite quickly, almost doubling to around 2 million parcels on peak days. But we have prepared intensively in the last quarter and are ready to go."

DHL expects a maximum of 1.8 million parcels in the Netherlands on the busiest days, which is "significantly" more than last year, according to a spokesperson. The reason for this is that the delivery company says it has grown in the Netherlands. Following a "significant increase", industry colleague DPD Netherlands can now handle up to 750,000 parcels per day, which is partly because around a quarter more employees than usual are being deployed.

Finding enough delivery and sorting staff is a constant challenge. PostNL says it is spending more on personnel costs, but having "recruited in all possible target groups", it at least has enough people to cope with the vacation period. "We also think we may still need some of the recruited staff in 2024, both in letter and parcel delivery," a spokesperson said. The staff shortage has led to difficulties, particularly in mail delivery, in recent months.

An additional challenge, according to PostNL and DHL, is that the general economic uncertainty makes it difficult for webshops to assess how much consumers will overprice their purchases.

DHL says it doesn't have to use "any weird tricks" to ensure that parcels reach buyers on time. On time means that the company delivers the products one day after they are received in the online store. However, delays can occur if the online stores are very busy.

DPD urgently warns against longer delivery times. "We recommend ordering Sinterklaas and Christmas gifts early, as there may be delays during the peak period."

The peak shopping period begins on November 24th with Black Friday and ends around Christmas.