Coronavirus - COVID-19
Advice for ILG clients

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 now 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.

We hope that the information below helps you at this difficult time but, should you require any assistance or advice please contact us.

1. Is your supply chain and manufacturing affected?

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.

2. Is outbound and inbound freight and courier being affected?

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.

DHL Express Emergency Surcharge:

Please note that with effect from 1st April, DHL Express are implementing an DHL Express have advised us that they will temporarily and until further notice levy an Emergency Situation Surcharge to all Express by Air shipments.

This Emergency Situation Surcharge will allow DHL to cover part of the operating cost increases and the necessary air network adjustments during the time of this emergency situation.

Please find below the mechanism of this surcharge which is also available to view via the DHL website by clicking here.

Per Shipment:

Up to 2.5 kg No charge

2.51 - 30 kg £2.25

30.1 - 70 kg £13.50

70.1 - 300 kg £45.00

>300.1 kg £180.00

We would strongly suggest you review your advertised delivery promises and look to review where possible. All European Road + domestic services are not affected by these surcharges.

3. How is the disruption affecting the service of the main carriers?

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.

All DX timed services excluding next day and pre-noon have been suspended until further notice. To prevent you from any API failures, DX has requested that all API calls for Pre 09.00 or Pre 10.30 services are stopped until further notice.

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 some countries. Operations via DPD Air Services are mainly facing between 24-72 hour delays in most countries, although operations to New Zealand are facing delays between 72-96 hours, as a result of the reduced number of flights. 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 Bulgaria, 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.

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 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.

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. We have also received the following update from UPS.

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.

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.

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.

4. Should I or my customers be concerned about receiving freight from affected areas?

No, the following image has been copied from the World Health Organisation who make it clear that freight from affected areas cannot carry the virus.

You can view this and further information at:

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/myth-busters

5. What is ILG doing to prevent the impact?

The following instructions and advice has 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

6. Can I split my stock across multiple sites?

We are clear that we do not expect to close any sites so at this stage we would not be looking to move your stock to another facility, however, should you wish to discuss this please reach out to your Customer Relationship Manager to discuss further.

7. Are you planning on any 'flash sales'?

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.

March 30th 2020