How to prepare for the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics
Sending and receiving parcels from London and surrounding areas will be more complicated this summer, especially from mid-July to mid-September. During those weeks, the city will be hosting the Games of the XXX Olympiad and the Paralympics. More than 550,000 officials, athletes, and spectators will be flooding the streets around Olympic Park in central London and other official venues. Both transportation and parcel delivery services will face unique challenges because of the expected traffic congestion.
Courier services such as Parcelforce have been working on possible solutions to this challenge since the summer of 2011. UPS has secured the exclusive rights to delivery and collections at the Olympic Village and the other official venues and this may cause further delays. For these addresses, Parcelforce Worldwide is obliged to hand packages over to UPS for final-mile delivery. Customers will be charged an additional £5 handling fee and £20 security fee imposed by UPS for each item.
An alternative to paying the extra UPS charges is to drop off and pick up parcels at local Post Office branches or Parcelforce Worldwide depots during these busy weeks. You might also want to consider obtaining permission to use the mailing address of someone you know who does not live in the targeted areas. Both options will save the additional surcharges that UPS will be charging.
Parcelforce Worldwide will be increasing the normal fee by £1 (for account customers) for each consignment delivered to postcodes E, EC, N, NW, SE, SW, W, and WC during the Olympics and the Paralympics. This charge will help offset the additional expenses incurred by the courier service during this time. To keep pace with the increased demand and more difficult logistics, Parcelforce Worldwide will be hiring extra employees, lengthening work schedules, and putting more vehicles on the road to limit collections and delivery delays as much as possible. Some routes have been altered, and others have been added to avoid the most congested areas.
When sending your parcel during this period, if you know that your parcels will be travelling in or out of affected neighbourhoods, try to send them a day earlier than you would have normally.
Parcelforce Worldwide will strive to continue its tradition of high quality of services levels for its next-day and 2-day delivery services.
This is a sponsored post.
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