Record delivery volumes for Hermes in 2020
Leeds-based parcel giant Hermes delivered 630 million parcels in 2020.
Outside of the traditionally busy peak winter months, volume also doubled year-on-year in April, May and June.
The business say this is an increase of 250 million from its 2019 annual deliveries figure. Almost 72 million parcels were delivered between Black Friday and Christmas Eve compared to around 42 million in the same period in 2019.
Hermes adds these numbers were partially driven by lockdown restrictions, alongside the ongoing growth in the sector, which has seen its parcel volumes grow year-on-year for the past decade.
Hermes Send, the business area dedicated to customer to customer sending of parcels, either from a local ParcelShop or via a courier collection, saw an increase of 104% across the year, with 10 million parcels delivered in December as people’s Christmas plans changed at short notice.
Across the business, the busiest day for Hermes UK was 1 December with 3.5 million parcels handled in a 24-hour period.
The busiest months were November and December with 67 million and 82.5 million being delivered respectively.
To support this growth, Hermes opened four operational hubs and five new depots.
It also increased its fleet by 2,500, created more than 10,500 new roles across the business and added 13,000 couriers to its nationwide network.
Martijn de Lange, CEO at Hermes UK, said: “As a result of the pandemic and lockdown, we had to fast forward our five-year plan and deliver it in just five months.
“The level of parcel volumes that we handled was what we had originally planned for in 2025.
“To achieve this, we worked with our retail clients to ensure we had both capability and capacity, and we also focused on our scalability, innovation and technology to make sure our couriers had the right tools to enable them to deliver easily, efficiently and safely.
“We aren’t seeing many signs that this demand is slowing down so far in 2021 and are continuing our ongoing investment into developing our infrastructure and proposition, supported by an award-winning and industry-leading app, and new products and services that are designed to continue to enhance the customer experience.
“This includes a new local customer service model with agents situated in our depots across the country.
“We’re focusing on providing strong communication and added assurance and convenience to all of our customers.”
