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ILG are following all government and NHS guidance regarding Coronavirus/Covid-19. We remain operational with strict H&S and social distancing policies in place.
We have activated our business continuity programme to mitigate the impact on our business and our clients. We understand that for many of our customers, on-line sales might be the only channel available to sell products, however, our Board has given a clear instruction to the business that the health and well-being of our employees is of paramount importance. As such we are now using a best-endeavours approach to keep up with demand so we ask for our clients understanding that we are no longer able to maintain our usual inbound and outbound SLA’s.
We hope that the information below helps you at this difficult time but, should you require any assistance or advice please contact us.
If so, please reach out to me directly or your ILG Customer Relationship Manager so we can explore options to help in the short term and put plans in place for when things start moving again. If you are expecting delays to deliveries into ILG, any information you can share with us will help us to be best prepared for when freight starts to move again. Please reach out to us now to help us to help you.
Worldwide movement of freight is being compromised by reduced aircraft availability and a reduction in capacity due to temporary restrictions that are being imposed on passenger flights to/from the affected areas. At present, the courier network is operational and our courier partners can assist with movements of goods to and from affected areas.
ILG remain uniquely placed by working with several carrier partners so we can give you a number of options when it comes to which carrier is utilised when parts of the network are disrupted.
We have been made aware by several our carriers that they are removing their consignee only services so that items can be left safe, should the driver conclude that the receiver is self-isolating. If you believe this affects you, please reach out to your Customer Relationship Manager for more information.
Carrier Surcharges:
The ongoing Covid-19 situation has forced many airlines to withdraw scheduled flights and because of this several our carriers have informed us that, with regret, they have no alternative but to implement temporary peak surcharges to help them to cover their increased operational costs at the current time.
All our air Express, Import and Export couriers are facing significant increase in linehaul costs due to the current demand for freight cargo capacity within the logistics industry and unfortunately, we are left with no choice but to pass these surcharges on, at cost to our clients.
These surcharges are only applicable to our Global Export and Import services. European Road and domestic services are unaffected.
ILG remains uniquely placed working with multiple carriers, and our sophisticated courier tracking system allows us to dynamically route your parcels via the cheapest possible service with or without surcharges.
Please see below a summary of the surcharges being levied by DHL Express, Deutsche Poste UPS Express and Skynet until further notice:
If you are a customer that utilises our third country to third country service, please reach out to our delivery team via delivery@ilguk.com and we can provide you with a quote including any relevant surcharges. For reference, these surcharges range from an additional £0.80 to £1.60 per kilo depending on the origin and destination.
UPS Express Global Temporary Peak Surcharge:
Please note that with effect from 12th April, UPS has advised us that they will be temporarily and until further notice levy a temporary peak surcharge to shipments originating from 19 countries in Europe, including Great Britain, to anywhere in the world on both imports and exports at a rate of £0.20p per kilo. All European Road and domestic services are not affected by this surcharge
Deutsche Poste Temporary Surcharge:
Please note that with immediate effect Deutsche Poste has advised us that they will temporarily and until further notice be levying a surcharge on all shipments at a rate of the equivalent of £4.00 per kilo.
As it currently stands, ILG remains open and operational, along with all of our carriers. We are continuing to monitor the situation and aim to be as transparent as possible in our communications with you during this stressful and confusing period. Should you have any questions, please get in contact with any member of the ILG team and we will be able to assist.
DX has temporarily suspended their Service Guarantee (i.e. non-issuing of credits from the date of the letter), removed all timed delivery commitments with the exception of pre-12 on DX Courier and pre-1pm on DX Secure and have removed the current 4 hour ETA time window on DX Secure.
Following the government's advice to close all non-essential shops, DPD has suspended their DPD Pickup Shops effective immediately. This will mean customers will be unable to drop off their parcels at a shop, divert their parcels to a shop in-flight or collect their parcels from their local shop.
We have received the following updated service updates from DPD. Operations via DPD Classic are expected to continue as normal, with delays of up to 24 hours expected in most countries, although delays between 48 and 72 hours are expected in Spain.Operations via DPD Air Services are mainly facing between 24-72 hour delays in most countries, although Australia, New Zealand and many countries in the Middle East are expecting delays up to 96 hours, as a result of the reduced number of flights. Please also note that DPD Air Services to India, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan have been suspended until further notice. Operations via DPD Direct are expected to continue as normal, with delays of up to 48 hours in certain countries.
We have received the following European postcode restrictions from DPD, covering Croatia and Italy.We have received the following update from DPD Local, with their parcel collection, sortation and delivery operations continuing as normal.DPD will be implementing a process which involves staying 2 metres apart during briefings and for all operational procedures such as loading and unloading vehicles. Along with this, DPD has introduced wave delivery program which will stagger driver start times to reduce the number of drivers on-site at the same time and to minimise the contact of people.
For updates for DHL surrounding their international service, please visit their dedicated COVID-19 update page.Following on from DHL's latest communication for 'Accepted at Delivery Point', they have now extended this to all deliveries. For more information, please see their latest update here. Currently, DHL is not expecting any delays to operations both domestically and internationally.
We have received the following update surrounding DHL Parcel. The delivery network is currently operating as normal, Hub Operations remain on plan and customer service queries are being responded to as normal.
We have received the following international service update from Hermes, with delays between 2-4 days expected in certain countries. We have also received the following update surrounding Hermes ParcelShop network.
Hermes has implemented a new signature process; couriers will now be required to write 'HTC' (Handed to Customer) instead of 'Covid 19'. Please see here for more information.
We have switched off the Royal Mail POD service for both the Tracked 24 & 48 services. Royal Mail, along with a lot of the UK courier networks, is enforcing the 'force majeure' to all contracts and as such, POD’s are not going to be obtained, thus rendering the service obsolete through this period. We will continue to utilise the tracked services as per your tariff but will omit any POD option to ensure you are not spending money for a service not being adhered to until further notice.
For updates from Royal Mail surrounding their international service, please visit their international incidents update page. Due to the lack of available air transport to a number of countries, Royal Mail has suspended international deliveries to multiple countries, please see here for more information. They will continue to deliver within the UK, please see here for more information see here for more information.
On Monday 30th March, Royal Mail removed the estimated delivery window from their services to prevent customers from being misled.
We have also received the following continuity statement, along with a list of Q&A's from Royal Mail.
We have received the following updated service update from UPS, they are expecting delays and restrictions to many countries across Europe. UPS have also directed us to a summary list, detailing the service level for each country. We have received the following update from UPS, containing more detail of their affected operations. We have also recieved the following European Freight Market update.Due to capacity restrictions in China, UPS has introduced a new process for managing your imports from China and Hong Kong for shipments over 100kg from a single supplier location. If you have the need to import over 100kg per day by supplier location, please contact collect@ilguk.com as soon as possible for us to have this set up to ensure collection and spot rates as rates will be increasing from one location over and above previous notifications.
Due to the extraordinary operational complexities presented by local, regional and national governmental responses to the coronavirus pandemic, effective March 26, 2020, UPS has suspended the UPS Service Guarantee for all shipments from any origin to any destination. The GSR for UPS Freight will be suspended effective March 27. The GSR for North American Air Freight (NAAF) was also suspended, effective March 25. These GSR suspensions will be effective until further notice.
UPS have provided all of their drivers with guidance regarding business deliveries, with that expectation that all operations and drivers are to make at least delivery attempt to all business locations. Please see here for more information.
Following on from India's lockdown for 75 districts including New Delhi, Chenna and Mumbai, import has been suspended until further notice. UPS India is still arranging exports out of their New Delhi Hub for small packages.
In Italy, all non-essential business have closed down and quarantine restrictions have been set up in Portugal in postal area code 38. UPS, therefore, recommend clarifying with your consignee if the business is open and able to accept packages.
UPS have extended their delivery window by an additional 2 hours to help minimise the impact.
We have received the following service destination update from Skynet, detailing each countries status for Air Express, Air Skysaver, EU road and premium mail.
Due to a reduction in scheduled flights, Skynet can no longer guarantee the agreed transit times within their service level agreement for the Air Express, Aire SkySaver and Premium Mail services until further notice. Skynet will continue to provide service to all destinations where there are no restrictions on allowing for imports of goods.
Skynet can no longer guarantee "Signed for" deliveries on all of their services to all destination as a result of their last-mile delivery partners, not all being able to take photos of the delivery location. Regretfully, Skynet has informed us that no insurance cover will be provided when outside of the Skynet network. Insurance will only be applicable to shipments that have been declared lost or damaged whilst within the Skynet network.
Time Express Swiss Couriers have advised that they are closing down operations from April 3rd 2020 until further notice. Please see here for more information.
China has announced new export requirements which will affect all carriers, please see here for further information.
All of our carriers are advising as standard that POD's will not be obtained in an attempt to reduce contact and further risk to their employees and the public.
All of our carriers are prioritising deliveries into the medical & healthcare sector during this time. We are keeping our carriers informed of which of our customers fall into this bracket, however, please do tell us if this applies to your business for the foreseeable future. We will be liaising directly with them on a daily basis to ensure that these are prioritised.
Yes, we are keen to assist wherever we can. Please reach out to your contact at ILG. For example we have waived pick fees for Scamp & Dude for their donations for NHS workers and we are covering the cost of importing and distributing face masks for care workers for Larsson and Jennings. We are keen to support the generous work of our clients wherever we can so feel free to get in touch.
We have completed a thorough risk assessment to ensure that we minimise the risk posed by the virus. This can be viewed here.
In summary, the following instructions have been shared with all locations:
• We are advising office-based staff that, where possible, they should work from home in line with government guidance, however, we will be operating a rota to ensure that we maintain a skeleton staff of Manager and Director presence at our main sites .• Where staff are unable to work from home, we are implementing strict social distancing protocols across the organisation ensuring that staff always remain at least 2 metres apart, we are staggering breaks and shift times and have increased cleaning to include thorough cleaning and disinfecting of high-contact areas. • We have implemented personal sanitisation stations across our business and are providing all staff with gloves, hand sanitiser and disinfectant wipes.• We are following the government and NHS guidance with regard to sickness absence and self-isolation. All our employees who fall into the ‘higher risk’ category or live with someone that is vulnerable are now on leave.• Should we experience staff shortages resulting from isolation or sick leave we are planning now to relocate staff between sites as required. We will also run additional evening and weekend shifts to maintain continuity of service as best is possible should the situation worsen. Should any specific site be affected we will reach out to you directly with our business continuity plans.
We appreciate that many of our customers are having to launch ‘flash sales’. We are now in a position where we have to plan our resource across our sites in the safest possible manner, so I would ask that if you are planning any promotional activity or increased volumes in the next 12 weeks you share this information with us now so we can factor into our planning and support you.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me directly or any member of the ILG team.
May 26th 2020
