Amazon is frustrated as shippers in the UK prepare for a festive Christmas

Power supply is changing at the British packaging market. And once again Amazon is the biggest culprit in criticizing the Royal Mail market leader over what is expected to be one of the most difficult Christmas for UK senders.

I am the most stable labor market in forty years as well as the availability of staff expected to reflect the success or failure of offers this season, Amazon has taken action with £ 1,000 bonuses to attract employees.

The U.S. technology giant has also increased Christmas staff to about 75,000 people this year, jumping from one-third of the Royal Mail’s pre-existing population to the epidemic to half its size.

The two largest companies in the UK market are all recruiting an additional 20,000 employees to deal with the aftermath of cyberbullying as they face rivals Hermes, DHL, UPS, DPD and Yodel.

“The issue between here and Christmas is one of the most common for employees,” said Tom Forbes, vice president of freight at Metapack, whose software connects distribution centers with shipping companies.

The proliferation of Omicron brands has also exacerbated the recruitment crisis, with staff at Royal Mail missing almost twice as much as Christmas 2018, which has caused serious problems for delivery offices.

Indeed, recruitment has become increasingly important because of the growing epidemic and the proliferation of growing years into months. Carriers in the UK delivered 5bn packages last year or 14m a day, the third lift in 2019, according to Pitney Bowes, a technical team.

This is expected to grow to about 5.7bn this year and early signs indicate that this Christmas tip may be close to last year’s crisis. Orders increased by 11 percent annually on Metapack technology delivery machines within the week of Friday which kicks off the best season but then fell behind last year in recent weeks.

However greater demand comes from retirement due to coronavirus or career change and Brexit has sucked British workers, especially motorists. And there is no pool of staff ready to join this year.

The shortfall prompted Yodel to increase drivers’ salaries by 16 percent in October in an effort to keep them busy, “said senior spokesman Mike Hancox.

But front-line workers still feel pressure, cracks are beginning to appear.

Metapack said some carriers are reportedly dropping by 20 percent in shipping costs due to low employment and bad weather.

At the Royal Mail’s Jubilee Mail Center west of London, with Chuck Berry’s ‘Go, Johnny, Go!’ With the explosion on the radio, the posts were extremely sophisticated, but systematically stuffed posters and packages into shipping pockets at designated post offices, which the company owned.

“It simply came to our notice then. It’s a crazy race and we are desperate today, ”said Paul Bishop, one of the post office staff members planning to deliver the goods a week after Black Friday.

MJ Sebastian, a truck driver who works at Amazon subcontractor in Milton Keynes, said the packages they had to deliver increased from last month to 300 a day.

“It is busy, it is raining and no one is helping us. They don’t care about the amount of pressure they put on their employees, “he added.

In addition to its recruiting work and bonuses, the US team is using technology in places like Milton Keynes to push drivers to provide information and a system that combines multiple addresses under one “stop”.

While drivers claim that most addresses do not travel long distances from one another, the organization insists that it offers real hope and strives to prevent employees from becoming overwhelmed.

Other teams are also working hard. The DPD said it was focusing on recruiting permanent staff beforehand and cited its £ 150m package at Leicestershire package exchanges as a major aid.

“Real headaches at this time of year are often things we can’t control such as traffic congestion and weather,” he added.

Marek Różycki, co-supervisor at the Last Mile Experts project, said the difficulty in enrolling people in the UK was exacerbated by the lack of resources that made transport work difficult. Unlike countries such as China and Poland, fewer locks and grocery stores are available to reduce stress.

“The only way to deal with it is to grow bigger, because of the current situation and getting more people,” he said. “Everyone has a lot of problems, it’s a big question.”

However, Royal Mail joined forces to improve shipping. The group, which split from the Post Office retail network in 2012, said it needed at least 13,000 rehabilitated staff after the transition, which includes redesigning its systems.

The 505-year-old company has taken on family and friends of employees, relying on recruits instead of encouraging bonuses to attract employees during the growing season, says Shiona Rolfe, the company’s operations director.

“This is going to be a tough market to persuade people to do the job because we are well aware of the huge number of job opportunities in the UK,” he said. “We took the opportunity to start our recruiting business immediately.”

The Royal Mail is making changes, such as hiring dedicated freight forwarders, but it needs to move forward to change its “foot-on-road” model.

With the hand of the package that is now the main driver, it can no longer rely on a system designed to fit small letters, especially the size of packets, some as large as 8ft in height.

“The biggest problem is walking and changing,” Rolfe said. “The key to this change is to bring everyone with us,” he said, referring to the need to do better without compromising staff.