No matter how happy we always are when a holiday season is approaching, we are often caught in last minute arrangements – including shipping parcels of course. Parcel shipping during a holiday season can be a real challenge. To help you arrange your plans and avoid any possible hassle, we list all bank holidays in the United Kingdom as well as other countries having the same day national holiday.
Courier companies work with all their forces to deliver as many parcels as possible. They are well prepared in advance and take the ever-increasing yearly volume of parcel shipping during a holiday season into account, but we hope that you know that holiday shipping delays are possible.
Courier companies which offer standard courier service follow their schedule regarding the country they operate in. On bank and public holidays, standard courier services don’t operate, which means that their couriers don’t collect or deliver any parcels. Pick-up and deliveries do take place on working days but note that delivery time is always estimated, never guaranteed, and that parcel shipping during a holiday season can easily be prolonged due to various factors. Therefore, it is very important that if you have a parcel shipping during a holiday season, you make it on time. Deliveries have priority over collection when it comes to the shipping craze around holidays and peak seasons.
If you have a freight shipment, the majority of these couriers will collect your shipping on any working day between December 24, 2018 and January 5, 2019. But bear in mind, that during this period, most shipments will be kept in couriers’ storages and will be shipped on and delivered only after January 5, 2019.
Christmas and Easter are the two major holidays of the year. Therefore, holiday shipping delays most often happen during these two holiday seasons as we all buy more and more presents on-line or ship them to our loved ones in other countries. Couriers’ services around Christmas and Easter holidays can be modified due to free holiday days and the ever-increasing volume of parcel shipping during a holiday season.
If you would like your presents to be delivered on time or maybe better said without delay, make sure you arrange enough space to do the shopping and wrapping soon enough and then ship the parcels as soon as they are ready. One of the crucial things to do is to correctly write the pick-up and delivery addresses. None of information shall be missing as any tiny mistake can cause delay either in collection either in delivery. And such situations add extra work for courier services as orders have to be re-entered correctly and the pick-up is automatically delayed, which leads to a delayed delivery as well.
One of important factors we often neglect and can cause holiday shipping delays is the weather itself. It especially applies to December/winter time, but is still relevant to any period of the year. The weather forecast can cause that courier services cannot operate on certain days if there are for example heavy snowfalls, blizzards, heavy rain, floods… This is another reason for you to arrange your parcel shipping during a holiday season on time.
Couriers’ services are not increased only around Christmas and Easter holidays, peak seasons take their share as well. One of them is of course summer when people depart on vacation and they ship their suitcases and often sports equipment to the holiday destination in order to avoid dragging them along on buses, trains, airplanes… and paying high surcharge frees.
If you decide to ship your luggage or sports equipment to the vacation location, ship it soon enough, so it will be already there when you arrive and your vacation can start worries-free.
| United Kingdom Bank Holidays | Bank Holidays in other European countries | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Jan | Wed | New Year Holiday | Scotland | Romania, Slovenia and Switzerland*. |
| 17 Mar | Sun | St Patrick's Day | Northern Ireland | Ireland. |
| 18 Mar | Mon | St Patrick's Day Holiday | Northern Ireland | |
| 19 Apr | Fri | Good Friday | National | Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France*, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, The Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland**. |
| 22 Apr | Mon | Easter Monday | National except Scotland | Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain*, Sweden and Switzerland***. |
| 6 May | Mon | May Day | National | Bulgaria, Ireland and Latvia. |
| 27 May | Mon | Late May Bank Holiday | National | |
| 12 Jul | Fri | Battle of the Boyne | Northern Ireland | |
| 5 Aug | Mon | August Bank Holiday | Scotland | Ireland and Spain**. |
| 26 Aug | Mon | August Bank Holiday | National except Scotland | |
| 30 Nov | Sat | St Andrew's Day | Scotland | Romania. |
| 2 Dec | Mon | St Andrew's Day Holiday | Scotland | |
| 25 Dec | Wed | Christmas Day | National | Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. |
| 26 Dec | Thu | Boxing Day | National | Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France*, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain***, Sweden and Switzerland****. |
France* – Good Friday and St Stephen’s Day are observed in Alsace and Moselle only.
Spain* – Balearic Islands, Basque Country, Castile-La Mancha, Catalonia, La Rioja, Navarre and Valencia only.
Spain**, – Ceuta only.
Spain*** – Catalonia only.
Switzerland* – AG, BE, FR, GL, JU, LU, OW, SH, TG and VD.
Switzerland** – National except TI and VS.
Switzerland*** – National except NE, SO, VS and ZG.
Switzerland**** – National except GE, JU, NE, SO, VS, VD and ZG.
Please note that when there is a holiday in Slovenia, there will be no next day pick-up service in any country as our customer support team operates from Slovenia and orders will not be processed.