How the Coronavirus Pandemic Has Affected Global Shipping
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, many businesses are temporarily reducing their operations or even closing down, since all they can do in the current situation is wait and see how it will play out. Shipping and delivery companies, however, continue to operate as normally as possible, as they are a critical infrastructure sector. But it would be wrong to say that they are completely unaffected by the pandemic. How has the pandemic affected global shipping?
At first, it was shipping from China that was majorly affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, because the disease hadn’t yet spread to other countries. The Chinese government imposed strict preventive measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus, leading to an abrupt decrease in the production, fulfillment and shipping of Chinese goods.
As the infection began to spread, however, the entire global shipping industry immediately started to feel its effects. Many countries closed borders to protect their population from the infection, which led to airlines suspending passenger services, operating only a bare minimum of passenger routes. But what does it have to do with global shipping, you may ask.
It turns out, just about every passenger flight is used to carry freight along with the passengers and their luggage, and many postal services and shipping carriers lease space on passenger flights instead of (or in addition to) operating their own cargo fleet. With the number of passenger flights drastically going down because of the pandemic, there isn’t as much cargo capacity as it used to be. A lot of sailings have been canceled as well; according to container ship operators, the pandemic is their biggest crisis since 2009.
A lack of flights has led to a global mail slowdown, especially in countries that are most affected by the pandemic and have imposed lockdowns because of it, such as Italy, Spain, and France. National postal services do their best to operate as normally as possible under the circumstances, but they simply can’t operate at their normal capacity because of a lack of cargo space, government restrictions, and personnel shortage.
Shipping couriers, such as FedEx, UPS, DHL and others, have been affected by the pandemic as well. Shipments are delayed for reasons that are beyond the couriers’ control, which we’ve already listed above. In addition, most couriers have suspended signature-on-delivery services in order to minimize human contact, imposed temporary surcharges for certain services, and introduced contactless delivery. A number of couriers have temporarily closed some of their locations to visitors or changed their work hours.
What does all this mean for customers? Well, first of all, you should expect your deliveries to be delayed. Although national postal services and shipping couriers do their best to deliver in time, sometimes it’s simply impossible.
Second, you should keep an eye on couriers’ official websites for the latest coronavirus updates: what precautions they take to protect their employees and customers, how their locations work during the pandemic, which services have been temporarily suspended, etc. Keep in mind that some couriers will store shipments for free until the end of the quarantine, while others will return them to the sender if you don’t pick them up. You should clarify this if you’re expecting a delivery.
Finally, you should make the most of their online services in order to minimize contact. For example, if you need to send a parcel, don’t go or drive to the post office. Instead, purchase and print a shipping label, attach it to your parcel and schedule a package pickup on the carrier’s official website. Contactless delivery and cashless payments are your best friends during these tough times of social distancing.
