The pandemic has been a challenge for the logistics sector.
The boom in
online
shopping
, confinements and Christmas have conspired to make this the month of December with
the highest volume of package shipments in history
.
The Correos group figures the volume forecast for the months of November and December at 48 million packages, which is 10% more than that registered during 2019, the year in which all records were broken.
Correos justifies this growth in "
the extraordinary circumstances that are being experienced this year due to the pandemic
."
It is not the only firm that has seen how the Covid triggered the distributions.
Benjamín Calzón, Seur's director of excellence in operations, explains that in 2020 his firm has seen "volume increases of between 30 and 40%", especially at Christmas, a period that accounts for most of the year's turnover, that "they are being a record in terms of volume."
The figure is especially surprising, because in April Calzón "looked at the future with concern, since during the first state of alarm there were two weeks with a dramatic drop in activity."
Another businessman in the sector who had a "pretty bad time" in April is Juan Carlos, the sole administrator of Mensacar.
In the SME that he runs "the vans that were distributed to workshops and shops were all stopped and the company was not allowed to enter ERTE because transport was decreed essential."
Only four of the 17 vehicles had deliveries, so it was barely able to bill 6,000 euros between March and April.
However, the situation in Mensacar began to improve in May, when little by little the shops and workshops resumed their activity and there was an explosion in household consumption.
Juan Carlos explains that "in Sending (a firm he works with)
in June they were overwhelmed
,
as in December
, because they work with individuals. In Correos Express they were also full, for the same reason."
The employer exemplifies this in that his workers loaded "pallets and pallets of beer into the vans, it was no longer a thing of clothing or electronics."
Calzón attributes this logistics boom to the fact that many companies opened their website and began to sell
even food
online
, and many sectors, a priori very distant, such as construction have joined the bandwagon.
"
Before, no one ever thought of buying a sack of cement online, but today there is a demand,
" says the expert.
For Seur, the fastest growing products are those related to electronics, pets, sports and textiles, although the latter has taken longer to recover.
"The pandemic and the restrictions to combat it have made many citizens discover online services for the first time," they report from Amazon, and they add that "
not only will there be more consumers who resort to
online
shopping
, but also more businesses will sell online
" .
The phenomenon is being especially relevant in communities with more restricted mobility, since there is an increase in E-Commerce shipments, according to Calzón.
Seus' parent company, GeoPost, which is the second largest parcel firm in Europe, has seen the same pattern and has recorded even greater increases in shipments to Spanish.
In the UK and Germany they are especially relevant.
All this makes Calzón think that what is happening this December is not a passing fad and that "at least 30% of the new clients have come to stay."
The companies in the sector think like him.
Seur has increased its workforce in December by 4,000 people
, while last year there were 1,600, Amazon will close 2020 with 2,000 more employees in Spain and Correos will expand its routes with 318 new ones.
However, not everyone is so optimistic.
Juan Carlos has hired new freelancers, which is in contrast to what he did in 2019, when he chose to expand the workforce with salaried employees and buy new vans.
In 2020 the businessman sees it as unfeasible since "turnover may have fallen by 30% compared to 2019" and although "November and December are the strong months", it is likely that "in January the routes will be reduced and 2021 may be hard, We must be careful".
The businessman explains that there are many people who are coming to logistics and parcels from "sunk" sectors such as the taxi because currently "there is work", however, he believes that it is necessary to be prudent since he does not know to what extent it is going to maintain consumption "
when people leave the ERTE, go unemployed and have no money
."
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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