Hermes UK have announced a number of developments to support its predicted busiest peak period yet. They are estimating that year-on-year parcel numbers will be up by 14%, with 12.8 million parcels predicted in the first week of December alone.
In order to prepare for this, Hermes has implemented the largest peak capacity uplift in the industry, across all hubs, enabling its network to process up to 2.5 million parcels a day.
An additional 1,000 trailers and 3,200 scanning devices have been acquired and 560 drivers, 7,000 couriers and 32 peak managers will join existing teams to provide seasonal support. Deliveries will be made seven days a week from the beginning of December up to and including Christmas Eve.
In case of bad weather, dedicated teams will be monitoring road surface temperatures and forecasts daily, with grit and snow ploughs strategically placed across the network.
Hermes have also invested £1.4m in equipment that will enable it to significantly increase the number of returns it can process. This is part of a £21.5m investment to boost Hermes’ operational capacity across the business in the last 12 months.
Earlier this year, the business opened its third sortation tier at its Rugby hub to support the increased volumes. Hermes’ customer service bot, Holly, will also deal with customer queries.
“We started planning for the peak
period at the start of the year, working with our longstanding and committed retail clients. This ensures we have the required additional capacity to deliver increased parcel volumes at this crucial time of the year, in turn allowing us to deliver a premium service for our customers and clients.As a growing business which has made significant investment in the past 12 months, we are confident this peak will once again be a resounding success.”
– Martijn de Lange, CEO, Hermes UK
14 Responses
while Royal Mail are preparing for Strike Action
Hermes have invested £1.4 million, yet are cutting couriers money left right and centre and ripping them off on a daily basis.
This new hi-tech equipment scans, weighs and photographs all parcels into the sort hub, there’s a video of it on YouTube, so every parcel that is wrongly banded as a packet being sent to the courier, is known about. This is how they check when you put in parcel band changes.
They’ve invested in 3,200 new scanning devices yet there’s a 6 week delay getting a hht replaced when it’s not working. This also means they don’t have to pay ETA payments when you’re working online only.
And bringing in new couriers? That should’ve been done months ago. No new courier will stick it out after a day of 100+ at the busiest time of the year, on routes they don’t know, with the basic “training” given.
It’s funny how so many ‘couriers’ complain about being over loaded yet for months managers have been highlighting about the predicted volumes over peak, yet couriers have refused to split their rounds, but shock horror the same couriers are now moaning how they are not being supported….. As a long serving courier who values and respects my responsibility to MY customers (not Hermes) I source my own cover, sort my own holidays and rebands any parcels, my pay is great as I work with Hermes instead of slagging them off at every opportunity, it scares me so so much how the personal rates have benefited everybody, yet it’s seems to be the only ones that cut corners at every opportunity that have now been found out that complain about it.
As for peak not one courier is being forced to work 27 days on the bounce, yet the way couriers make out a gun is being put to your head to do so! In any self employed industry I have never in my life seen, heard or witness so much shameful attitude and actions from certain couriers that think it is perfectly fine to fail rounds because they can’t be arsed… if you ran a pub or a shop you just wouldn’t open up or better still take on a job of painting a house white but half way through decide you want to paint it black because your not getting paid enough??
It’s about time couriers woke up and realised that if Hermes list all these contracts that you can’t be arsed to deliver for nobody will have work.
I very disgruntled HERMES courier that’s not from the 194 but sick and tired of couriers taking the piss then blaming everyone else but themselves for their failings
Sin they couldn’t invest the money on there own couriers, pish poor pay. Or even invest in getting the Van’s to is at an earlier time!!! Delivering your 1st parcel at 1pm is unacceptable, especially when u have 230, walk in the door at 9pm like a burst ball!!!
Dont see Hermes phoning to ask if u r ok! The software on the machines r shambolic also, years ago hermes used to look after the couriers, now they couldn’t care less, all they r after is money, couriers are getting paid as little as 45p per parcel and nothing will get done about it!!
A massive shake up is needed starting from the big wigs in the office, get rid of them and distribute there bonuses to couriers, can c a massive walk out happening from couriers shortly. Not before time I may add!!! We as couriers are treated like dirt. We have 24 rounds in our depo and cant even get 1 cover courier in, shows how poor the pay really is
Where do I start Hermes are ripping us off without a doubt.
1. Rebanding parcels is not our job we are couriers not secretaries. I asked what happens when well known company like ASOS band their parcels wrong, they have so many warnings then get fined?? More money in Hermes pockets. Us couriers see nothing unless you have time to sit and reband them, which I certainly don’t have time to do.
2. New courier covers given rounds to do of 120+ I’ve seen it for myself no wonder a lot of couriers don’t stay, FM told me a new courier starting out that doesn’t know the area averages 10/15 parcels an hour that’s when I 1st started 4 years ago, so your talking at least 8 hours for a new courier who also won’t get SOS payment and no doubt failed their ETA’s, more money in Hermes pockets!!
3, Late Vans, we are self employed so don’t get paid until we start delivering, can’t organise hospital doctors appointments unless we take the day off. Customers don’t wait in all day because they have a rough idea of when we will be turning up, so that means going out twice to deliver the 20+ you couldn’t get out, no safe places on my round.
4. Area Managers can be Bullies as I met one along my travels, Rude, obnoxious threatening tactics are just a few, and I’m not the only one to have been bullied.
5. Skeleton barcodes xxxxxx which we are receiving many of just lately if we fill them in I’ve been told they pay £1.00 each one, never seen it on my statement in courier adjustments.
6. Postable catalogues not even a catalogue it’s a parcel do not always fit through letterboxes!! More money we’re losing out on.
7. December payments for ETA and SOS went up to £8.00 a day, they knocked that on the head, more money back in Hermes pockets,
8. Respected by Hermes ? recieved 1 Christmas card 1 year when something went wrong but we all still worked they actually sent a Christmas card out saying thank you for you help delivering. Hermes Help line would be a help if we could understand each other language barrier is terrible.
9. Moved to a new depo which is extra mileage and extra time added onto our journey before we even start, no extra payment, I took on being a courier because it was local to me within a mile from my house, so over an extra 3,000 miles per year and wear and tear to new Depo. No extra payment.
10. No matter what we do as a courier we are losing out on a lot of money!!!! I’m a courier and not a secretary at the end of day, my job description is to deliver parcels safely to the customer not then sit and reband parcels to be told half won’t go through because they had already been audited, so why not send parcels back at the main depo to be rebanded, no they don’t want to do that, they want to fine the major company’s so they have more money in their pockets, a lady I spoke to who is above FM said she would love to be a courier again, if that’s the case then why not do it. Because it’s a load of bull!!!
COL forum site shows a lot of people’s complaints about the company and if they think you have said something wrong when voicing your opinion you get banned for bringing Hermes into disrepute!!! We have a voice and that’s the only way we can leave our opinions which should be there for all to see!!
If you don’t have blue blood running through your veins you are a nonentity to Hermes. They don’t care about the courier’s what they deliver how they deliver as long as they deliver they have taken the fun out of our jobs as well as the money putting more and more parcels through as packets. As for courier’s moaning their rounds are too big and nothing being done about it your far from the truth our depot got told there would be no splits so before you assume get your facts right courier’s want to do their job for a decent pay and cut all the crap that keeps coming from the powers that be they should go back to being a courier under their own management and see it’s a pile of pooh
Signed for parcels that have not been delivered. Cant speak with Hermes so have to go via the sender. They are not the ones who committed fraud
I am sick of hermes delivering my orders to the wrong address They say it has been signed for and delivered and put in my shed .I have discovered where they keep delivering them too but it really is a nuisance as I have to go collect them .The address on the package couldnt be more clear .
Hermes have lied to the parliamentary Works and Pensions Select Committee, and the media. Hermes said in September 2017 that they would honour all parcel upgrade requests from couriers “without question”. Well, my courier has told me that Hermes are not now honouring such requests. I think that parliament and the Guardian newspaper and the GMB should investigate this serious breach of trust. Jane.
The fact is that non of the Hermes drivers using there own car pays for “carriers insurance”, so technically all Hermes drivers are driving about uninsured, which is how they can uncut proper carriers. I spoke to my Hermes delivery driver and said that Hermes told her “not to both with it because it’s to expensive”. Hermes get around this by making it the responsibility of each driver as they are “self employed”, however they don’t check or make this a requirement.
I’m sorry to say thomas that we all have to have hire and reward insurance as that is the law so please don’t spurt your lies, Hermes has fleet insurance that we are forced to pay but as most couriers know it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on so no courier in their right mind would ever use hermes insurance and like myself pay £1249 a year for hire and reward insurance.