An extraordinary feat: Swiss Post delivered 22 million parcels between Black Friday and Christmas

Over the period from Black Friday to Christmas, Swiss Post employees processed nearly one million parcels every day, delivered them to every corner of Switzerland and sorted them for international shipping – while meeting the usual high quality standards. This incredible feat required tremendous effort and commitment from employees at the parcel centers, in delivery vans and on electric scooters. On the peak day of 20 December, over 1.2 million parcels passed along the belt conveyors of the sorting systems – a daily record for 2022. To process this sheer quantity, Swiss Post’s belt conveyors ran almost around the clock in all Swiss regions – from Cadenazzo (TI) to Frauenfeld (TG) and from Härkingen (SO) to Vétroz (VS).

Swiss Post processed a total of 22.3 million parcels during the pre-Christmas period. That’s 5.5 percent less than during the same period of the previous year. The main reasons for this decline include low consumer confidence, global supply bottlenecks and the lifting of coronavirus measures – which has led to people shopping more in bricks-and-mortar stores again. But the figures are still well above the average daily volumes for the rest of 2022. Compared with the figure for the same period in 2019 – the year before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic – it’s actually 23 percent more in 2022. Letter volumes fell slightly compared with 2021: mail carriers distributed just under 14 million letters, newspapers and promotional mailings per day. The reasons for this are clear: The pace of the digitization trend has increased from 2016, and the annual decline now stands at around 3 to 5 percent – which also has an impact on Swiss Post during the period from Black Friday to Christmas.

Parcels under the Christmas tree on time thanks to extraordinary effort

Employees accomplished a Herculean task. This was only possible thanks to careful advance planning and extraordinary staff commitment. Swiss Post staff provided an exceptional service to ensure parcels could be put under the Christmas tree on time. “I’m impressed and thankful every year when I see what our employees achieve during the pre-Christmas period – and to such a high quality standard. I’m extremely grateful – without them Swiss Post would grind to a halt,” says Johannes Cramer, Head of Logistics Services and Member of Executive Management at Swiss Post. Swiss Post employees worked on Saturdays over the past four weeks at many parcel centers to sort the huge number of parcels. And from Black Friday to Christmas, delivery staff also distributed parcels on Saturdays to households in addition to the normal services provided – supported by 500 temporary workers and around 350 hire vehicles. The belt conveyors at the three major parcel centers in Frauenfeld (TG), Härkingen (SO) and Daillens (VD) have been running 22 hours a day – Swiss Post has only stopped them for maintenance work. An agreement between the major online retailers and Swiss Post on the daily volumes helped with preparations beforehand.