Seasonal logistics refers to those periods of the year in which, traditionally, there is more consumption. It can be Christmas, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Singles Day in Asia… In these moments of the year companies in the logistics sector are forced to have additional capacity and contract extra resources. The aim is to solve, in the short term, the wave of work volume that is generated in these periods. In this context, seasonal logistics must overcome two main obstacles: it is difficult to predict and it is inaccurate.

In Stock Logistic, as a freight forwarder and integral logistics operator that manages freight traffic from any port to any destination in the world, seasonal logistics is a great opportunity to demonstrate our solutions for the sector.

Tools to manage seasonality

Some issues that can help reduce the uncertainty of seasonality are:

• Planning demand. This is one of the areas that has improved most in recent years. Peaks have been reduced by bringing forward the start of shipments and softening volumes. Although this is a tool that has limitations due to the storage capacity of retailers.
• Quantify volume. It is a question of evaluating past sales, the economic situation, the state of the sector or predicting as far in advance and accurately as possible the volumes that will be moved to each destination and on what dates.
• Visibility. Seasonality puts stress on the entire supply chain. Being able to have as much information as possible, as well as sharing it, makes things easier. In fact, knowing the location and real-time status of shipments allows you to identify problems. Contingency plans can then be established.

Other factors

In addition to seasonal logistics, the transport sector is currently conditioned by other factors such as the last mile, the role of localised deliveries or flexible networks and, finally, the evolution of technologies.