With an influx of wild and windy weather conditions across the UK and Europe, drivers delivering cargo across a variety of routes encountered more challenges than usual recently, and clearly showed their resilience.
With Storm Eunice’s arrival in the UK, the met office issued a Red Warning signifying ‘risk to life’ in the south of England. Elsewhere across the UK amber weather warnings were issued, symbolising the possibility of danger to life, as well as an increased likelihood of delays, power cuts, road and rail closures from severe weather conditions.
Well known parcel and mail operators, including Royal Mail and DHL, were amongst a few of the businesses in the sector who announced they would be suspending their deliveries as winds reached a peak of 120 miles an hour.
DHL also issued a statement reporting up to 24 hour delays for deliveries heading to Scotland, Wales and the south west of England. The storm caused power cuts nationally and sadly a number of people lost their lives due to falling debris and car collisions.
The subsequent arrival of Storm Franklin caused further disruption, specifically in the movement of goods on land and at sea, with major UK ports including Felixstowe, London Gateway and Southampton, and the EU ports of Dublin, Antwerp and Rotterdam, suspending operations temporarily because of the hazardous conditions. It wasn’t just ports and road closures that threw a spanner into the works during the tumultuous storms, numerous bridges barring access also halted cargo’s progress.
The delivery of a reliable and friendly service, whatever the weather is something Fito prides themselves upon. Our customer service team is on hand to assist customers with any delays and challenges (weather-related or otherwise) that arise within each project, and endeavour to help teams navigate from point to point with exemplary service at all times.
Safe travels!