Black Friday takes place on Friday, followed by Cyber Monday three days later. Black Week offers have been competing for customers’ favor for a long time anyway! The promotional days for bargain hunters take place in the high season at the postal logistics center in Allhaming (Upper Austria). And a record is expected this year. You can read here what has been done to cope with the flow of packages.
“It depends on you how it arrives,” says a poster hanging in the postal logistics center in Allhaming, intended to underline the importance of the location. Especially nowadays it is even more important that every cog fits into the other and everything runs as smoothly as possible. “The most important thing is that the goods flow continuously,” says Mariusz Wierzbicki.
30,500 packages per hour is top in Austria
For the 51-year-old, everything comes together when it comes to sorting letters and parcels at the location not far from the western highway, which has been expanded by 80 million euros in recent years. Since then, 30,500 parcels per hour can be sorted in Allhaming, an Austrian record.
What happens to employees and machines around Black Friday on November 29 and Cyber Monday on December 2, when bargain hunters are in top form and the Christmas business picks up speed? “We expect huge increases,” says Wierzbicki.
Last year, 324,000 parcels were sorted and distributed on individual days
In concrete terms: The Post Office expects that 400,000 parcels will be sorted and distributed in Allhaming on peak days. Last year’s record was 324,000 copies. How do you plan to deal with the enormous increase in the number of packages this year? Measures were gradually implemented. An extra shift was introduced, temporary workers were brought on board and the parcel and letter sorter’s workforce grew to almost 500 employees during the high season.
Experts expect a huge rush on the Black Friday offers, which have also found their way into stationary retail: “Especially in times when their wallets are not so spacious, customers make particularly diligent use of shopping days,” says trade spokesperson Rainer Wants with conviction. A study by the Institute for Trade, Sales and Marketing of the Johannes Kepler University in Linz shows that 44% of consumers between the ages of 16 and 74 wait for Black Friday to be able to buy a certain product at a lower price.
Logistics center manager about systems: “That’s a Ferrari”
Wierzbicki believes that the team is well prepared and that the technology is certainly of the highest level: “We have a powerful sorter here – it is a Ferrari that you have to be able to drive.” almost around the clock: they are only stopped between 6:00 and 8:00 so that the technicians can carry out maintenance work and any repairs.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
