UK logistics industry ready to serve the nation for Black Friday, says Logistics UK

Wednesday 25 November 2020

Society’s lockdown heroes – logistics businesses – are ready to step up once again for the nation and deliver on what is expected to be the UK’s busiest Black Friday this year.  Online retail sales as a percentage of total sales are already up by 44% from September 2019* as lockdown restrictions prevent high street shopping and with more people than ever before working from home and bargains galore available to purchase, the nation’s fleet of home delivery vehicles looks set for a busy run up to this year’s unique festive season.

Denise Beedell, Policy Manager for Vans and Urban at Logistics UK – the business group representing the logistics sector – comments: “Logistics businesses stepped up during the pandemic to deliver all the essential goods and services the nation needs under incredibly difficult circumstances.  And now, as we brace for the UK’s busiest Black Friday for logistics, the industry is poised and ready to take on this next challenge. During the pandemic, we have all come to rely on logistics businesses – the country’s new “emergency service” – to bring everything we need to our doors – with each driver making up to an estimated 70-80 parcels deliveries per day, from essential food packages and medicine to entertainment products, gifts and clothing.”

Home delivery volumes reached a new peak on 8 November 2020, at 62% above the 1 March 2020 level, according to Metapack’s Covid-19 Home Delivery Volumes Index. “The logistics industry is hard working, adaptable and solutions-oriented”, continues Ms Beedell. “Our member businesses are fully committed to facing the challenge of delivering for the country head on to ensure UK consumers get everything they want this Black Friday.”

Logistics UK (formerly FTA) is one of the UK’s leading business groups, representing logistics businesses which are vital to keeping the UK trading, and more than seven million people directly employed in the making, selling and moving of goods. With COVID-19, Brexit, new technology and other disruptive forces driving change in the way goods move across borders and through the supply chain, logistics has never been more important to UK plc. Logistics UK supports, shapes and stands up for safe and efficient logistics, and is the only business group which represents the whole industry, with members from the road, rail, sea and air industries, as well as the buyers of freight services such as retailers and manufacturers whose businesses depend on the efficient movement of goods.