We are monitoring full and partial lockdowns imposed across Europe, improvement measures to US ports, Black Friday and disruptions in Italy, Vancouver and Ireland.

Macro Update:

Soaring coronavirus case numbers in Europe has forced nations into lockdowns and imposed restrictions. From today, Monday 22nd November, Austria will enter a full lockdown lasting a maximum of 20 days following record low vaccination rates and increasing case numbers. Germany and Slovakia have introduced restrictions for the unvaccinated and partial lockdowns in the Netherlands and Belgium continue to be in force. Restrictions in place across Europe could affect delivery times and cause delays.

Deliveries in Italy are experiencing delays due to a customs backlog. Mail being sent to Sicily is further delayed due to disruptions caused by heavy rain, flooding, landslides and road closures. 

Despite the Biden administration’s push to have ports in Southern California open 24/7, the measures have not been effective. Complex appointment restrictions mean many trucking companies that want to take advantage of the 24 hour operations do not qualify for appointments. As many elements of the supply chain do not work 24/7, it will take time to link up services to fully take advantage of the ports’ new measures.

Extreme weather in Vancouver, Canada has caused severe disruption following floods, mud slides, road and rail closures. The port of Vancouver reports significant and long-lasting disruption with no estimates on when services will resume.

Service Updates:

Australia

Fulfillment services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Inbound Receiving services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Shipping services: Shipping services are on average, improving as the country continues to open up out of imposed lockdowns. We are now seeing delays of only 2 days on average. You can read more about domestic delivery times across Australia’s regions here.

Christmas delivery: Australia Post has posted their Christmas delivery cut off days which can be seen here. For WA and NT, the date is December 8 for parcel post and 15 December for Express services. For all other states the cut off is 13 December for parcel post, and 20th December for their Express services.

Direct injection International services at this time: No delays

International to postal providers: Australia Post is experiencing significant delays when sending post to China, and Canada. This is due to limited air freight capacity. 

New Zealand: Domestic deliveries within New Zealand with NZ Post are experiencing delays, particularly in Auckland and Hamilton where delays are up to 5 working days in Hamilton and 4 working days in Auckland. Across the rest of the country delivery delays have been reduced to 1 working day.

Air New Zealand has been forced to cancel over 1000 flights between Australia and New Zealand through to 31 December, due to uncertainty over the resumption of quarantine-free trans-Tasman travel. The flight cancellations mean our Direct Injection service to New Zealand will be impacted by slight delays.

US

We are expecting some bottleneck disruptions to services during the Thanksgiving public holiday on the 25th and following the big Black Friday shopping event on the 26th.

Fulfillment services: Remain unaffected by delays and same day dispatch is being met as per SLAs.

Inbound Receiving services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Shipping services: We are seeing slight delays with Ground services in the USA. Average wait times of 5-7 days are now taking 6-8 days. 

UK

Black Friday on the 26th will see a huge surge in ecommerce shopping which will most likely impact services, causing delays to congested mail services.

Fulfillment services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Inbound Receiving services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Yodel and Royal Mail services:  No disruptions or delays

Ireland: Royal mail is experiencing delays with some of their services in Ireland. The disruption is caused by the implementation of new import controls by the Irish Customs authorities. 

International from the UK: We are seeing slight delays for DDU, not DDP deliveries, where there is an IOSS number. Average delivery times of 5-8 day are now taking 8-11 days. We encourage all customers to have their IOSS number as this helps with improving the clearance process to deliver into the EU.

Christmas delivery: Royal mail has released their Christmas delivery cut off dates which can be viewed here. For UK inland economy deliveries, the cut off date is 17th December, rising to the 22nd for tracked deliveries. Western Europe delivery cut offs are as early as November 29th.

EU

As COVID-19 cases surge in the region, continued lockdowns and imposed restrictions in Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Slovakia could impact deliveries. 

Fulfillment services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Inbound Receiving services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Canada

Fulfillment services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Inbound Receiving services: Operational and as per SLAs.

As mentioned above, extreme weather conditions have severely impacted mail operations in Vancouver, Canada. We will be monitoring the situation, however disruptions should be expected for the next few weeks with increased congestion at ports.

PSS

As we are currently within the Peak Season, surcharges are in effect. However to ease financial burdens on our customers, we pass on all surcharges at cost.

You can read more about current surcharges in place on our Helpsite here.

Freight Forwarding Update:

Sea freight - Asia to north America

We’ve seen a slight drop in pricing for LCL and FCL. Hopefully this will continue to improve in Q4, however rates are still elevated. 

Space: We continue to experience space issues with most carriers

Booking: We recommend booking well and truly in advance (5-6 weeks), we cannot guarantee that the space will always be available.

Sea Freight - Asia- Europe

Rates are still at record highs, although they have gone down slightly. 

Space: Continues to be a concern

Booking: We recommend booking well and truly in advance (5-6 weeks).

Sea Freight - Asia - Australia

Pricing is still relatively elevated.

Space: Continues to be a concern

Booking: We recommend booking in advance (4-5 weeks).

Air freight

There is limited space availability and freight may be moved off and put on other later flights, in the run up to peak season. We are seeing issues with carrier reliability and capacity at the moment, meaning we cannot always guarantee services at this time.

Direct injection

B360 has its own Direct Injection network that runs from Sydney to the US, Hong Kong to Europe, Hong Kong to Australia and Hong Kong to the US. These channels are still very reliable, with transit times on average being 4-8 days, we see no changes as per the SLAs at this time.

To learn more about any of our updates or to make carrier changes, please reach out to us today.