How do Bank Holidays Affect Freight Forwarding?

Planning the right route for your shipments means considering a variety of factors, from the modes you use to external calendar events. Bank holidays are one of the busiest times of year, and with Easter right before the double May bank holidays, what will the impact be on freight?

We’ve got the answer – at Allegro, we research and refine our services to prepare for any eventuality, meaning you can secure a reliable supply chain and deliveries over the bank holiday period. In this article, we’ll talk about shipping over the Spring bank holidays, the impact on other countries, and how you can be best prepared.

Get in touch to plan ahead, or read on to find out why you should!

Shipping Over Easter and May Bank Holidays

Freight channels are always a hard thing to navigate, especially with different holidays, cultures, and customs around the world. In the UK, the extra-long Easter weekend combined with the upcoming double May bank holidays presents a relaxing time for consumers, but a concerning one for retailers.

Customers expect prompt delivery, no matter the circumstances. The prevalence of next-day delivery, or in some cases even same-day delivery, has meant public perceptions around when shipments can and can’t be delivered has shifted. For freight, this means getting your products well down the supply chain to keep up with these expectations.

Understanding why bank holidays cause disruptions to the supply chain is a step towards avoiding issues with your own shipments.

What are the Factors that Affect Shipping During the Holidays?

More Shipments. This is sort of two factors combined. On the one hand, people have more free time, so they’re more likely to be browsing the internet and finding things they want to buy. On the other, holidays tend to align with special events, so purchases will increase for seasonally relevant items as well.

Busier Roads. People often take a long weekend as an opportunity to travel and go on holiday. This means an increase in road traffic, resulting in slower transport times for road freight. While this doesn’t directly affect other forms of freight, it can have a knock-on effect for multi-modal systems – potentially impacting delivery times for all kinds of shipments.

Holiday Leave. The supply chain has a wide range of components, from delivery drivers to shipping contractors and customs officers. Many companies offer bank holidays off, meaning that the business they offer will either slow or stop entirely. Having a supply chain in place that can deal with links being broken due to holiday leave will help keep your shipping as functional as possible.

Explore our role in ensuring a great supply chain in our article on what freight forwarders do >

Are Other Countries Affected Too?

Similar to the effect of busier roads, any delays in shipping in the UK will likely have a knock-on effect for other countries too. This could be for exports from the UK, or for any freight method involving shipping through the UK to reach other countries.

The UK doesn’t exactly set the standard for international holidays, either, so it’s also important to consider when people in other countries could be on holiday too. This could lead to delays in your destination country for the same reasons as the UK sees delays due to our own holidays.

Shared holidays like Easter are an easier thing to manage in terms of keeping track, but can present a larger hurdle to overcome due to multiple parts of the supply chain being disrupted simultaneously.

We offer freight forwarding for import and export, domestically and around the globe >

How to Prepare for Bank Holiday Deliveries

To help you prepare for the bank holidays and ensure your business can continue to ship its products, here are our top six tips:

1. Keep customers informed. Being open and honest is always important, so make sure to notify your customers of any delays and the expected time for delivery.
2. Capitalise on opportunities. Busier times mean more potential profits for industries everywhere, so long as you have a plan in place to deal with the high demand and constricted shipping methods.
3. Plan in advance. You should prepare your shipping routes will in advance of the holidays – even further than you’d expect because of the “holiday rush” effect caused by companies all having this idea at the same time.
4. Secure a robust supply chain. Without the proper freight channels in place, you’ll find it hard to enact your plans.
5. Use a reliable freight forwarder. As well as being able to secure the best supply chain routes for you, a freight forwarder like Allegro can help you even further by cutting down your costs and admin times with a comprehensive, end-to-end solution.
6. Integrate your freight forwarding with last-mile logistics. This cuts out the communication lag between the two steps of the supply chain, allowing for greater control and responsiveness throughout your freight journey.

Secure a full-package solution for your shipping and logistics – find out more in our article >

Fast and Reliable Freight Forwarding from Allegro

When shipping channels become oversaturated with orders, and holidaymakers cause chaos for traffic throughout the world, you need a robust supply chain to get your packages to where they need to be. At Allegro, we offer freight forwarding that ensures the most efficient route for your shipments, from source to destination.

Get ahead of the holiday rush by contacting us today! We’ll help you secure the freight solution that you need. Find out more about what we do with some related articles:

Read our beginners’ guide to supply chain management >

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