Last Mile Holiday Trends: Ho Ho Ho, Oh No?

Last Mile Holiday Trends: Ho Ho Ho, Oh No?

Even though summer recently ended, it’s never too soon to think about the holiday shopping—and shipping—season in the retail and e-tail logistics world.

How do supply chain professionals feel about shipping, and particularly last-mile delivery, leading up to the holiday season amid surging inflation and high fuel prices? Concerned seems to be the operative word.

That’s according to the more than 130 logistics professionals who responded to The 2022 Last Mile Holiday Perspective, a survey conducted in July 2022 by last-mile dispatch provider Dispatch Track.  

Here’s what they had to say about the upcoming holiday season:

  • 6 in 10 logistics professionals are worried again this year about inventory shortages and 82% are worried about missing delivery windows.
  • 1 in 3 are preparing for the holidays earlier this year than they did last year.
  • Revenue projections are all over the map.
  • Nearly half of survey respondents say they will rent additional warehouse space or trucks.
  • The top three worries are fuel costs (82%), inflation (50%), and driver shortages (48%).
  • 4 in 10 businesses are still concerned about the business impact of another COVID wave during the holiday season; only 1 in 3 say they are prepared for it.

“Inflation and fuel prices are mounting serious pressure on last-mile operators to optimize routes and find new ways to improve efficiencies,” says Shailu Satish, co-founder and chief operating officer of DispatchTrack. “Margins have never been this uncertain.”