Yodel has confirmed that the parcel backlog in its central sorting facilities has been cleared and these parcels are now in its network of local service centres for delivery.

The announcement follows the suspension of some collections from its clients last Thursday and Friday, which enabled it to use the weekend to process the outstanding parcels.

The courier has blamed delivery problems on a higher than expected increase in deliveries following Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

As planned, scheduled collections of parcels from Yodel’s clients, which include Argos, Tesco, Boots and Amazon, have resumed in full today (Monday, December 15).

However, new parcels entering the Yodel network may still be subject to a 24-48 hour delay which is reflective of normal Christmas peak operations.

Preparations for the Christmas rush began in January with the appointment of a dedicated 'peak' planning team.

The carrier has also worked in partnership with its retail clients on their predicted volumes, to ensure that the correct resources are in place.

It had forecast to handle 15% more parcels than same period in 2013, and had invested heavily in its operation to meet demand.

The company, which has over 60 locations around the UK, procured an additional 13 sites to handle this increase in parcel volume. These include five standalone service centres, seven satellite sites to support existing service centres and a returns centre in the Midlands. Fixed canopies have also been created to extend site capacity.

In addition a special control tower has been established at Yodel's central sorting facility in Wednesbury to oversee volume management, operational action and weather contingency.

And, on the road an additional 200 HGVs and 500 trailers were sourced to carry out the trunking between clients' warehouses and Yodel's sort and service centres.

Yodel's existing workforce was also bolstered by an additional 5,000 workers across transport, sort, service centres and customer services. Recruitment for the busy winter period began in September to ensure all new workers receive adequate training.

However, despite extensive planning and introducing a raft of measures, Dick Stead, executive chairman of Yodel, admitted they had been caught out by the sheer number of online deliveries.

He said: “There has been a deluge of parcels far exceeding anybody’s expectations. It has caught the manufacturers out, it has caught the retailers out and it has caught the parcel carriers out.”
Yodel now expects a slowdown in the number of consignments to be sorted over the next week, meaning that parcel volumes will be at the levels originally forecast, and that the Yodel Christmas network was designed to handle.

It said it will continue to closely monitoring this situation to ensure that all parcels are out for delivery before Christmas.