Tens of thousands of delivery trucks are stranded! Amazon's massive return wave is coming!

Some time ago, we predicted that the problem of delivery capacity would erupt at the end of the month. In the past two days, the big bomb finally broke out . Now there are tens of thousands of freight trucks stranded in the UK, and even Amazon officials have issued a delivery expectation warning!

Since the UK's emergency blockade at the beginning of this week, the UK's internal transportation system has been nearly paralyzed. According to preliminary estimates by the UK Road Haulage Association, there are more than 10,000 freight trucks stranded across the UK , which have crowded the roads leading to various ports and warehouses.

For this purpose, the UK has specially activated an abandoned airport and placed the stranded trucks on the airport runway. At least 1,000 freight trucks have to wait here, and these trucks have filled the runway.

Truck drivers were stuck in their cars, eager to get home in time for Christmas, but there were no staff to conduct nucleic acid tests and no idea when they would be able to pass.

The delay reached its peak yesterday when a driver complained at dawn: "There are no showers, not even toilets, nothing." Dissatisfied truck drivers became emotional and clashed with local police.

According to foreign media reports, as of Thursday local time, only two trucks had successfully been inspected and passed the border. The stranded drivers and trucks currently have no way of estimating the time it will take to clear the border.

Amazon is naturally the platform most affected by this situation. The official recently stated that due to the establishment of the new UK customs border on January 1, 2021, coupled with the holiday season and the sudden epidemic blockade in the UK, the delivery of goods across the UK and cross-border transportation between the UK and the EU are expected to be delayed for several days.

These delayed packages will definitely bring a lot of customer complaints and return issues, and it is not only the sellers on the UK site who have to worry about these two problems. The US site will also soon usher in a wave of returns.

According to Returnly, an e-commerce data analysis agency, December 26 (this Saturday) may also become the peak return day in the United States this year. Due to the impact of the epidemic, this year's e-commerce sellers will usher in the largest and longest return season to date.

The agency's data shows that the return rate after the Christmas season this year will surge by more than 76% compared to the same period last year , so the expected benefits of e-commerce sellers may be affected to a certain extent. Although Amazon and other platforms have adopted a more relaxed return policy this year, for example, Amazon has postponed the return period for holiday orders from October to January. However, this relaxed policy is bound to put more pressure on logistics, and the current offline distribution situation in the United States is not optimistic. This pressure may lead to a vicious cycle. According to last year's situation, the return wave will continue until early January.

But the good news is that the shipping quantity restrictions for some sellers have finally been loosened a bit. I saw people in the forum and our group saying that the shipment quantity has increased a bit.

Although it is not much, it is a good sign. As long as we can survive the return wave at the end of the month and the beginning of January, FBA's warehouse and logistics processing capabilities will be significantly improved. So the most important thing next is to deal with returns and related customer complaints!