Bonn, 2 January 2019. By the end of 2018, GO! Express & Logistics had shipped more than 400 tonnes of firecrackers and fireworks to German retailers and private households. This represents growth in volume of more than 17 per cent. As it meets all of the statutory requirements that apply to delivering fireworks, not to mention those relating to dangerous goods and the critical nature of the delivery time, the express and courier service provider is the perfect partner for online firework sellers.

Every year, following the intense Christmas delivery period, GO! faces another significant challenge before the turn of the year: to ship over 400 tonnes of firecrackers and fireworks on time. Additionally, any returns or undeliverable shipments have to be returned to sellers as quickly as possible to prevent New Year’s Eve fireworks from falling into the wrong hands. Under the statutory regulations in Germany, class II fireworks may only be sold to private individuals on the last three working days of the year. At the end of 2018, the selling started on 28 December as New Year’s Eve was after the weekend. Over 400 tonnes of fireworks were processed in one day, greatly surpassing the volumes on even the busiest normal days. Shipments of fireworks are processed in special shifts separately from normal business operations, and only by employees and couriers who have completed special ADR dangerous goods training.

Smooth process planning in the HUB

The shipments are fed into the GO! system at the sorting centre that was built last year in Niederaula, before being distributed to their recipients through the connected stations. ‘GO! starts planning extensively for the firework period at the very start of the year’, explains Ulrich Nolte, Managing Director of GO! Express & Logistics (Deutschland) GmbH. ‘With our excellent network-wide delivery rate of 99.2 per cent and outstanding process planning in advance, we were able to overcome the challenge this year too’, continues Nolte. ‘Unless the weather is not on our side – we are fortunate that there were no surprises this year and as such, everything ran smoothly with no delays’. The company can look back on successful firework shipping and an equally successful business year.