UK courier company Yodel promised on Saturday to clear its parcel backlog by Monday and apologized for the delivery delays. Due to what the company described as “unprecedented demand,” some deliveries had to be delayed by up to 3 days.
Yodel, the UK’s second biggest delivery company after the Royal Mail, says it was inundated with parcels as far back as Black Friday, which turned into a deluge when the Cyber Monday and then Manic Monday orders arrived.
The Hatfield based firm stressed that there was no suspension of its delivery services, which will continue to be made throughout the weekend.
In an official statement made on Friday, the company said:
“Today, we have re-commenced many collections from our clients, with the remainder coming back on line no later than Monday. We are working with all our clients to manage the flow of new volume into our network. By Monday we expect to resume our normal service.”
“We would like to apologize for any inconvenience that may have been caused to our clients and their customers.”
Mr. Stead expects the backlog to be cleared by Monday.
The company says it is using a “first in first out” approach. On Wednesday, given that volume jumped by 26%, it decided to temporarily defer some collections of ‘new’ peacels for 1 to 2 days to give it room to clear the backlog.
Yodel emphasized it is “on plan to get your parcels to you before Christmas.”
Executive Chairman, Dick Stead, said on Saturday in an interview with the BBC:
“I had a phone call from a gentleman who unfortunately had waited eight days for his parcel and that’s totally unacceptable.”
“You have to remember that from the point of order to delivery there are a number of points in that chain. Whatever, the retailers and the parcel companies as an industry as a whole -we’ve got to do better under this circumstances.”
“Again, I say apologies but we will get it back on track.”
Yodel, which delivers for household names like Tesco Direct, Boots, Argos, and Amazon, and claims to bring parcels to every postcode across the country, said poor forecasting by retailers was partly to blame for its current problems.
Exploding demand has wrongfooted several retailers. Marks & Spencer said earlier this week that it is having problems clearing its backlog of orders since Black Friday. Customers have reported being told by several online retailers, including Amazon, that their next-day delivery commitments have had to be amended.
