Peak Season pressure - Protecting Field Service SLAs when freight networks slow

In November and December, freight networks feel the strain. Parcels spike. Capacity tightens, and delivery windows stretch.  

In the 2024 peak period alone, Australia Post moved almost 103 million parcels between 1 November and 31 December. that is roughly 2,400 to 2,800 parcels reaching households every minute, and a record high for the network*.

For most consumers, a delayed online order is frustrating but manageable. For field service organisations relying on the same network, a delayed critical part can mean missed SLAs, idle technicians, and customers facing extended downtime.

Your customers do not care that it is peak season, they care that their equipment is back up, their site is safe, and their SLA has been met.

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Why peak season freight is different for field service

In peak weeks, the generic parcel network is doing exactly what it is designed to do. move huge volumes of B2C freight as efficiently as possible. That design creates some specific risks for field service.

If a consumer parcel is delayed, someone gets a late gift.

If a service part is delayed.

• Technicians arrive on site without what they need

• Jobs are rescheduled, then rescheduled again

• SLAs are breached, customer trust is impacted and compensation kicks in

• Downtime stretches for critical assets in energy, water, health or manufacturing

Generic parcel networks are optimised for throughput and cost, not for the timing of your service event. In peak period, that gap gets wider.

• Cut off times are set around parcel flows, not technician runs

• Depots and offices change opening hours in December, so deliveries bounce

• Linehaul is saturated, so a one-day delay can quickly become three or four

When your SLA clocks never stop, relying on an ETA peak freight network is a fragile strategy.

The human side. more traffic, more risk, more fatigue

Peak season pressure is not just about parcels, it is also about roads.

Australian road safety data shows that more than 1,042people were killed on the roads in the 12 months leading up to Christmas 2023, with 36 lives lost in just a 12 day Christmas period the year before. In several states, authorities have highlighted rising road deaths as a concern heading into the holidays.

For technicians who are already driving long distances to depots and jobs, every extra kilometre to chase a part adds to fatigue, safety risk and lost productivity.

So, there are really two intertwined challenges.

1. Can you get critical parts where they need to be in time?

2. Can you do that while minimising non-productive driving when roads are at their busiest?

Designing a peak season logistics plan around SLAs

To protect SLAs in November and December, service organisations can borrow some concepts from best practice in-field logistics. To shift the focus from “where is the parcel” to “what does the service event need to succeed”.

Three practical pillars.

1. Segment freight by criticality

Not every part should travel the same way.

• Identify critical high value, scarce SKUs where a delay would directly threaten an SLA or create safety risk

• Give those parts a different treatment in peak. Managed service, Pre-8am delivery, tighter tracking, targeted contingency plans

• Accept that these shipments may cost more per unit, but will save significant SLA and downtime costs

2. Get stock physically closer to technicians

Rather than relying on a single central depot, create a distributed inventory layer.

• Move high criticality and fast-moving parts into locations closer to technician home bases or dense job clusters

• Choose locations that remain accessible when corporate depots or offices move to skeleton holiday rosters

The outcome - fewer long drives to depots, more jobs completed per day, and less exposure to congested roads in the busiest weeks of the year.

Right Part. Right Place. Right Time™ (even in peak season)

Droppoint’s national network of more than 1,000 secure locations creates a distributed inventory layer between your warehouse and the field. From Pre-8 delivery to 24/7 smart lockers, all coordinated through our Materials Orchestration System (MOS) and boots on the ground support.

In practice, critical parts are moved out of central depots and into convenient Droppoint locations ahead of peak periods, technicians collect and return parts when it suits their run rather than a carrier’s timetable, and missed deliveries are avoided because locations are designed to stay accessible even when offices shut or operate on skeleton staff.  

This integrated Droppoint network and Managed Freight model turns November and December from a period to survive into an opportunity to prove reliability when others are struggling.  

By combining MOS, managed freight, and our decentralised Droppoint network of location, you keep technicians productive, protect SLAs, and deliver a better experience in the busiest months of the year.  

Head into the holidays confident that every critical job has the Field Service Inventory Management expertise behind it. Book a meeting

*1 Peak period: 1 Nov - 31 Dec 2024 12 Cyber sales weekend: 29 Nov - 2 Dec 2024 I 3 Delivery using Express Post, Metro or StarTrack Premium Data derived from Australia Post parcel volumes.