Peak in figures - 2024 (2024)

This went well

• 100% availability of logistics resources. Internal night hire was needed only once out of 13 scheduled times.
• Office staff jumped in 148 times on the logistics floor as ‘peak help’.
• High average delivery reliability rate of 99.8%.
• No significant clock disruptions at export locations (uptime rate on the clock: 99.98%).

This could be better

• A clock disruption occurred at the Eelde hub on Ascension Day.
• Spread supply across all hubs

What is the forecast for June?
The holidays are behind us and the end of the peak is approaching. The expectation for the coming weeks is that trade as booming and outdoor will stabilise and eventually decline. Of course, we always remain dependent on weather conditions in this, think for instance of the situation in southern Germany.

Despite the weather, 6% more clock carts and 9% more direct carts were delivered. Good to know is that there were two more auction days this year than in April 2023. The extra early-auction day on Monday 29 April turned out to be unnecessary in retrospect.

This went well

• 100% availability of logistics resources. Internal night hire was not necessary.
• Average delivery reliability rate of 98%.
• No significant clock disruptions (uptime percentage on the clock: 99.9%).

This could be better

• On Monday 22 April, a logistics breakdown occurred at the Rijnsburg hub. As a result, the logistics process had a delay of 1.5 hours.
• Due to the rain and cold weather conditions in April, the supply of work both at home and abroad was lower than expected. In retrospect, the early auction day on 29 April was unnecessary.
• Spread supply better across all hubs.

What is the outlook for May?
With the (predicted) nice weather and the upcoming holidays ahead, we expect the peak to really take off soon. We are on edge and all preparations for reliable and predictable services are in full swing. This includes good availability of logistics resources and personnel, but also the early auction days on Monday 6 May and Tuesday 21 May. Because peaks are something you do together!

The challenge last month was with Mondays. Because the central clocks were finished on this day just before the agreed time period, this is a focus for the upcoming period.

Clock: supply and pricing
There were fewer clock carts and clock transactions than in March 2023, but because March 2024 had two fewer auction days, the average number of clock carts and transactions per day was higher. Per auction day, we had an average of 4.1% more clock carts and 4.4% more transactions than in 2023. In direct flows, we saw a 4.8% decrease in load carriers delivered through Royal FloraHolland in March 2024.

Pricing on the clock was good for most products compared to 2023. Despite Easter falling a week earlier, the middle price of €0.368 was higher by 9.7% with 1.4% more pieces delivered.

This went well

• 100% availability of trolleys and CCs. Internal night hire was not necessary
• Sufficient staff, thanks in part to a successful labor market campaign
• Delivery reliability rate >99.8%. Number of complaints in the order picking process significantly reduced compared to 2023
• No significant outages (uptime rate on the clock:99.82%)

This could be better

• Even better spreading thanks to period delivery
• On-time delivery / period delivery on Mondays
• Spread deliveries across all hubs

What is the outlook for April?
The way things look now, traffic is set to increase towards Mother's Day (May 12). In the run-up to this holiday, it has therefore been decided to schedule an extra early auction day on April 29, 2024, the Monday after King's Day. This will keep the end times acceptable and allow us to deliver within the time slots. In this way, we keep the logistics service reliable and predictable. Because peaks are something you do together!