Yodel has been hit with capacity issues ahead of the Christmas trading period, with the firm urging customers to switch to rival delivery couriers.
The delivery firm, which was set to hire thousands of seasonal staff members to help it manage the period from Black Friday until Christmas, has told clients including Gousto, eBay and New Look that it has been impacted by a host of operational challenges, Sky News reported.
In a memo sent to shoppers this week, the courier, which was saved by a Shift-led rescue deal in February, said it witnessed “significant delays in processing [parcels] therefore impacting the availability of empty trailer[s] and our planned driver schedules.”
It read: “Unfortunately, this combined with a number of our peak HGV drivers not arriving for their agreed time slot has impacted our ability to provide the number of agreed collections.
“Upon investigation, we uncovered that this was due to significant financial incentives being offered elsewhere.
“We are working closely with these drivers as they had made a commitment to Yodel for the peak period.”
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It warned clients: “We are currently unable to guarantee a 24-hour service.
“With this in mind and the reduction in network productivity due to the… high numbers of large, manually sorted parcels entering the network, we are unfortunately requesting that you reduce your planned volume for our network for the upcoming week, if you are able to divert parcels through your other carriers.”
A spokesperson for the company said: “Due to record-breaking volumes and a surge in larger parcels over Black Friday week and Cyber Monday, we worked with a small number of clients to adapt collection schedules to maintain smooth operations.
“We are grateful to these clients for their collaborative approach and ongoing support.”
They added: “Our teams are working tirelessly during the busiest time of the year, and we expect to clear a small backlog by this weekend.”
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