UK delivery company Hermes reports record breaking 2020

Hermes UK says that it delivered 630 million parcels in 2020.

This is an increase of 250 million from the 2019 figure. Almost 72 million parcels were delivered between Black Friday and Christmas Eve, compared to around 42 million in the same period in 2019.

These volumes were driven by coronavirus lockdown restrictions, alongside growth in the online retail sector.

Back at the start of lockdown, our team of friendly local couriers wanted to let everyone know the measures they were implementing to continue delivering parcels safely. It's important that we all do our part in making sure that we stay safe and healthy. https://t.co/cq0K6yi2Pn
— hermesparcels (@Hermesparcels) January 6, 2021

Hermes Send, which is dedicated to C2C 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 coronavirus restrictions stopped many Brits from spending Christmas with friends and family.

Hitting the fast forward button

Hermes opened four operational hubs and five new depots.

It 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.

It also added additional geo-location products such as its collaboration with What3Words and introduced ‘store to door’ deliveries for retailers to fulfil orders for goods directly from closed retail units into the delivery network.

Martijn de Lange, CEO at Hermes UK, says: “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 closely with our retail clients to ensure that we had both capability and capacity, and we also focused on our scalability, innovation and technology to make sure that our couriers had the right tools to enable them to deliver easily, efficiently and safely.”

He adds: “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 our 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 depots across the country.