The end of the year is typically busy for postal and courier service companies. Covid restrictions pose additional challenges this year.
Latvian Postal Service currently faces major difficulties in international incoming and outbound deliveries. The biggest congestion is in shipments to the U.S. because of a lack of space on planes. On the other hand, there are no problems with domestic shipments, at least for now.
Delivery service companies are now feeling a 30-40% increase in volumes compared to last year's pre-holiday period. Shopping and ordering began earlier, too.
“We had planned to start working in an enhanced mode in December, but in reality, we already started to do so in early November,” said Beāte Krauze-Čebotare, head of Omniva in Latvia.
Remote shopping and, consequently, the courier business has grown considerably during the global pandemic. New parcel lockers are set up in different places of Latvia, but during the pre-holiday period businesses are not coping with all shipments, and congestion are forming.
Jānis Grants, chairman of the board of the delivery company DPD Latvia, noted: “However [large] they [parcel lockers] are built, we always see that they are full at some point.”
In December, shipment deliveries are likely to take several days longer than they have been until now. Therefore, entrepreneurs are calling to send gifts in a timely manner.
