Festival seasons come and go every year. With the celebrations come many stages, crowds and parties, as well as entertainment, refreshment, staff and of course, the clean-up. For eCommerce, an increase in purchases leads to greatly increased demand.
What many people do not see or consider, is the behind the scenes and logistics of such events and occasions.
There are obvious disruptions and difficulties during these times, but there are also less obvious complications that arise. These can affect logistics outfits, regardless of whether they are involved in delivering the festivities or not.
Increased Transit Times
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The festival season is a time of increased strain on nearly all transit and transport links. With many people travelling, road, rail and airlines experience increased demand and this can lead to increased transit times.
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Add to this, an increase in orders with festival goers planning for their adventures, parties, festivities, gatherings and sending and receiving gifts. Ecommerce businesses such as Amazon and Shein report vast increases in orders throughout these periods.
With logistics firms shouldering the burden of delivering these items as well as the festivals, resources can become stretched. This is especially prevalent during Black Friday and Christmas time.
Road Closures
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For many cities and towns across the globe, festival season can also bring closures of major roads. With street parties, sporting events and heightened numbers of pedestrians on the streets, many municipalities counter the chance of an accident by reducing traffic through the busiest areas.
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At peak times, these road closures can cause added disruption to delivery times.
Left with a Neighbour
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Another increase also seen during these times, is the number of failed deliveries. As many people are out celebrating or participating in the season’s events and gatherings, more of you are not at home to take the delivery.
Delivery drivers are almost always on a tight schedule and whilst there is some leniency given for failed deliveries, leaving parcels with a neighbour can make a delivery time twice as long. If you are going to be out when a delivery is expected and you have the chance to update the firm, it can save valuable time knowing in advance that a neighbour is taking delivery for you.
Taking all the above into account during summer festival periods, religious holidays or incentivised eCommerce promotions such as Black Friday can help you, and us ensure that deliveries are on time.
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At OCS, we are continually looking at ways to improve our service whilst remaining efficient and reliable. You can find a list of the years holidays here.
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