What counts as a disruption
A carrier can stop or slow down for many reasons: industrial action, a systems failure, a cyber incident, a facility fire, a regulatory problem or a sudden capacity shortage. Some are announced days ahead, as strikes often are. Others arrive without warning. Contingency planning is the work of deciding in advance what the business will do in each case, so that decisions during the event are quick rather than improvised.
The effects on a seller are usually similar whatever the cause: pickups are missed, parcels sit in depots, tracking stops updating and customers start asking where their orders are. Planning aims to limit the number of orders affected and to keep customers informed.
Start by mapping dependency
Before writing a plan, find out how exposed you are. Useful questions include:
- What share of volume goes with each carrier, and for which services?
- Which products, regions or customer types rely on a single provider?
- Which orders are most time-sensitive, such as perishables, event items or contractual deliveries?
- How much stock of unshipped orders can you hold before storage or cash flow becomes a problem?
A business that sends everything with one carrier has a concentrated risk. Spreading volume, as discussed under multi-carrier shipping, reduces it, though it does not remove it, since a regional strike can affect several networks at once.
Build the backup carrier option
A backup is only useful if it is ready. The practical steps are usually:
- Qualify one or two alternatives in advance. Open accounts, agree basic terms and test a few shipments in normal times. Sorting out account approval during a crisis is slow.
- Check service equivalence. A backup may have different service levels, cut-off times, size limits and coverage of remote postcodes. Know where it differs.
- Prepare the technical side. If your shipping software or labels are set up for one carrier, make sure a second can be switched on without rebuilding the process. Many shipping tools allow several carriers to be connected at once.
- Understand liability and price. Backup rates may be higher, and the claim terms may differ. Reviewing carrier contracts in advance avoids surprises.
- Consider smaller options. Local or regional carriers are sometimes less affected by disputes that hit national networks, although they may have limited reach.
Keeping a low, steady flow of parcels with the backup carrier in normal times can keep the relationship and the integration alive.
Decide the triggers
A plan should say when it switches on. Examples of triggers include an announced strike date, a carrier notice of service suspension, a threshold of missed pickups, or a rising share of parcels with no tracking scan for a set number of days. Choosing the triggers ahead of time prevents hesitation, and it names the person with authority to act.
Define also what stops. For instance, the business might pause promised delivery dates on the website, reroute only the most urgent orders, or hold low-priority orders until service resumes.
Plan the communication
Communication is often the part customers notice most. Prepare in advance:
- A short customer message template explaining that delays are likely, what the business is doing and when to expect the next update. Avoid promising specific dates you cannot control.
- Website and checkout adjustments, such as a banner or revised delivery estimates.
- Staff guidance so everyone gives the same answer. Good shipment communication inside the team keeps messages consistent, and trained delivery customer service agents can handle the spike in queries.
- Carrier contact points, including account managers, so you hear updates early.
Being honest about delays usually does more for customer trust than silence, and it can reduce repeat contact.
Handle parcels already in the network
Parcels held in a disrupted network are in an uncertain state. Keep a list of what was dispatched, with tracking numbers and values. Once service resumes, expect backlogs, and expect some parcels to arrive much later than usual. If something appears to be missing after the backlog clears, follow the carrier’s trace process rather than reshipping at once, unless the item is urgent and the cost of duplication is acceptable. Time limits for claims may still apply, so note them.
Test and review
A plan that has never been used often has gaps. Run a small exercise: pick a day, assume the main carrier is unavailable, and see whether the team can ship a sample of orders with the backup, send the customer message and update the website. Fix what breaks.
After any real disruption, review what happened: how many orders were delayed, what it cost, what customers said and which parts of the plan helped. Update the plan with those lessons. For disruptions caused by bad weather, a related issue is covered in its own article.
No plan can guarantee uninterrupted service, since backups can be strained too when many shippers move at once. The aim is to be better prepared than the average seller, with options ready and a clear idea of who does what.