Hermes, the consumer delivery specialist, enjoyed its busiest Black Friday Weekend to date after handling in excess of 4.8 million parcels, whilst also recording its highest levels of service. This follows a significant year-long investment programme, which included the opening of its £31m Midlands Super Hub in Rugby.
The delivery firm saw a 7% percent growth in volumes compared to the same period last year, when it processed 4.5 million items over the weekend itself. This year, the company handled 9.1 million parcels during the seven days following Black Friday.
To prepare for the peak season, which incorporates Black Friday Weekend and the upcoming Christmas period, Hermes embarked on a dedicated investment plan to increase capacity and operational efficiency. In addition to Rugby, the company added 85 sub depots to its existing network, whilst recruiting an extra 4,500 temporary self-employed couriers to fulfil deliveries. Hermes has also added 490 trailers to its fleet, as well as 230 additional depot vehicles and 160 tractor units.
Not only did Hermes process record volumes during the Black Friday period, but the company also achieved its highest Net Promoter Scores (NPS) to date. Over the past year, Hermes has seen its consumer ‘communication’ score jump from 8.2 to 8.9, whilst the ‘timeliness of couriers’ also rose to 8.9, up from 8.6 in November 2016. The score for parcels left in a ‘safe place’ grew from 8.4 to 8.7, whilst the ‘condition of packaging’ and ‘condition of contents’ stood at 9.1 and 9.2 respectively.
Martijn de Lange, CEO at Hermes, said: “Our meticulous planning and ongoing investment has ensured we have been able to deliver another hugely successful Black Friday Weekend for our valued customers. Our network and infrastructure comfortably coped with the additional volumes. Over the coming weeks we will continue to work closely with our clients to understand their forecasts for Christmas and to guarantee the busy festive period will be equally as effective.
“We are extremely proud that our NPS scores have significantly improved, whilst handling substantially more parcels than last year, we have also improved the experience we are delivering. In addition our customer satisfaction score rose from 82 to 87. This is testimony to the team’s hard work and dedication, our continued investment in new technology, and our commitment to grow our innovative portfolio of services and solutions.”