Hermes' preparation delivers record-breaking peak 2019

Hermes UK, the consumer delivery specialist, has experienced its most successful peak season to date, which included the busiest day in the company’s history. The organisation handled in excess of 49.1 million parcels during December 2019 alone – significantly up from 39.5 million in December 2018.

The milestone day fell on 5th December when the company processed 2.1 million parcels, beating 2018’s total of 1.9 million items handled in a single day. The first week in December was also a record week which saw the company deliver 13.9 million parcels and operate almost 1000 client collections in just one day.

In order to prepare for peak 2019 Hermes had implemented the largest peak capacity uplift in the industry, across all hubs, enabling its network to process over 2 million parcels a day.

An additional 1000 trailers and 3200 scanning devices were acquired and 560 drivers, 7000 couriers and 28 peak managers joined existing teams to help provide support. Deliveries were made 7 days a week from the beginning of December up until 6pm on the 24th December.

"This was another record-breaking peak and once again we were ready and able to deliver Christmas. We started planning at the beginning of the year, working with our longstanding and committed retail clients to provide a collaborative, flexible and scalable service. Our ongoing investment into developing our infrastructure and proposition, supported by some industry leading new products and services, also meant that this year we were able to further enhance the customer experience, providing strong communication and added assurance and convenience."

Martijn de Lange, CEO at Hermes