On-time delivery rates fell, whilst the trend for next-day delivery continued to rise last month, according to the latest figures from the IMRG MetaPack UK Delivery Index.
It showed that the percentage of orders arriving on-time and meeting the shopper’s delivery expectation was down by -1.2 percentage points last month, compared with February 2016. January’s on-time rate was also down year-on-year (-0.8%).
Meanwhile last month was the first February in which specified-day and next-day delivery took a greater share (33.7%) of deliveries than standard economy options (31.6%), according to IMRG who says that may have contributed to the marginal decline in on-time delivery rates.
With the current rate of growth IMRG estimates that UK carrier networks will handle 1.35 billion parcels / 1.3 billion orders this year.
Andrew Starkey, head of e-logistics at IMRG, said: “Delivery volumes continued to be ahead of forecast in February, which represents an encouraging start to the year. We’ve seen a slight year-on-year decline in on-time delivery this February, which may be directly related to the increase in use of next-day delivery services, which seems to be becoming an important option retailers are using as a means for attracting and retaining customers.”
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