Peak surcharge at PostNord

PostNord is to impose a peak surcharge for its clients between the 15th November and December 31.

The SEK 4 per parcel surcharge is being put in place due to the added costs of running its parcel delivery services during the peak season. According to a statement from the company, “PostNord takes a number of measures during the peak period, such as:

• hiring additional transport capacity in the form of trucks and drivers
• taking on extra staff
• having longer opening hours at distribution points
• opening additional, temporary distribution points during the period
• home deliveries to recipients on weekends

Several of these measures have become increasingly expensive for this period. For example, it is both more difficult and more expensive to hire transport capacity.”

The postal operator said that e-commerce growth is still very strong and it is building capacity into its infrastructure to cope with this. PostNord continued, “It is positive but at the same time creates challenges for both transport companies and their customers during the peak season of the year that begins in connection to Black Friday.”

The issue that the Nordic logistics company faces – as with its rivals around the world – is that there is such demand at this time of year that cannot be put to use at other times of year so it has to otherwise absorb costs. The PostNord statement concluded, “One way to do this is to apply variable pricing in different seasons, which is done in many countries and many sectors of business.”

PostNord isn’t the first delivery company to announce such a surcharge – in March we reported that Hermes Germany is doing the same only from October to December.

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