UK postal workers will continue strike action 8 - 9 September and US West Coast and European port congestion has improved in time for peak season.

Macro Update:

UK postal workers will continue strike action this Thursday and Friday (8 & 9 September). This follows a separate strike in late august, that resulted in delays, disruption and suspended services. We expect similar disruption to services during and in the aftermath of this next scheduled strike.

A combination of improved labor availability, due to the end of the school holidays and a reduction in Asian imports, has eased congestion at North Europe’s container hubs. Moreover, a wage settlement last week at German ports is also expected to relieve the high yard density at Hamburg’s box terminals in the coming weeks.

The number of container ships headed for the California ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach — a traffic jam that once symbolized American consumer vigor during the pandemic — declined to the lowest level since the bottleneck started to build two years ago. Eight vessels were in the official queue as of late Monday, according to data from the Marine Exchange of Southern California & Vessel Traffic Service Los Angeles and Long Beach. That’s an all-time low, officials said in a statement, down from a record of 109 set in January and about 40 lined up a year ago.

Service Updates:

Australia & New Zealand

Fulfillment services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Inbound Receiving services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Direct injection International services at this time: No delays

Aramex: 

Services are affected in Geelong, Perth, Capricorn Coast, Melbourne and Wollongong. Read more about Aramex disruptions here.

New Zealand Post: 

Unplanned maintenance on an aircraft has affected parcels being sent between the North and South Islands (in both directions), resulting in delivery delays of up to 2 working days. 

Winter illnesses and COVID-related absences, road conditions and slips are delaying deliveries by up to 2 working days in the Waikato, Hawkes Bay and Wellington regions.

Asia

Pakistan

Certain areas of Pakistan are currently severely affected by flooding. As a result, there may be disruption to mail operations and delays to the delivery of postal items.

Hong Kong

The processing and conveyance of all inbound, outbound and domestic mail fully resumed on 30 August 2022.

China

Items destined for China are still experiencing delays due to ongoing operational delays within China. As a result, China post is unable to guarantee compliance with the agreed delivery standards and delays should be expected for items destined for China.

Fulfillment services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Inbound Receiving services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Direct injection International services at this time: No delays

US

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: Operational and as per SLAs.

UK

Due to recent strike action by members of the Communication Workers Union, disruption to Royal Mail deliveries and services is expected. Items posted in the run up, during and after strike days are likely to be subject to delay. 

Strikes will continue on 8 and 9 September 2022. 

Detailed, up-to-date information on services can be found at royalmail.com/latest-news.

Fulfillment services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Inbound Receiving services: Operational and as per SLAs.

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.

EU

Due to temporary adjustments to the FedEx transatlantic air network, transit times for FedEx International Priority Freight (IPF) shipments from Europe to the US, CA and LAC will be extended by 1 day, effective 29th August until 2nd October 2022. Read more here.

Fulfillment services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Inbound Receiving services: Operational and as per SLAs.

Freight Forwarding Update:

Sea freight - Asia to north America

We’ve seen a slight drop in pricing for LCL and FCL, 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

COVID-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to impact services and limit capacities globally.

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.