Furnlink would like to advise all distributers about expected freight delays in the coming months.

Usually as we approach the end of the year, we experience some freight delays and issues as the pressure and workload of freight companies increases. This is caused by a high volume of online ordering and end of year spending that significantly increases the volume of freight being transported around Australia.

This year freight volumes are increased even further, and we are seeing freight delays and issues earlier in the year than ever before. This is causing unprecedented stress on the transport industry. Due to the lockdowns and people being encouraged to stay home and order online, there has been a massive increase in online orders being delivered in 2021. This increase is in addition to the usual end of year increase the transport industry needs to manage. Other issues that the transport industry have had to overcome include:

• Delays due to border closures and the need for transport workers to get constant Covid tests
• Strikes in the transport industry
• Depot shutdowns due to covid outbreaks

Once a delivery leaves our warehouse on a third-party freight company, we can no longer control where the delivery goes and when it gets delivered. We will do our best to manage freight companies to ensure everything goes smoothly, but we do rely on their logistics operations working as expected.

Despite these issues, you can be assured that while there have been some delays experienced, the vast majority of our orders are still being delivered in full and on time.

What are Furnlink doing?

At Furnlink we have recently implemented a new freight management program that allows us to book and track shipments quickly and smoothly. We can then provide a web link to our distributers which allows them to track the shipment all the way to its destination.

Any deliveries to Southeast QLD will be delivered by Furnlink’s own trucks where possible. This allows us to bypass any possible delays in the transport industry and ensure your orders are delivered in full and safely. While not all deliveries can fit in our trucks, and delivery times are limited to our truck schedule, we are preparing to double our capacity to this area in the coming months.

Our inventory levels are being constantly maintained to ensure that when you need hospitality furniture, we have it in stock. We continue to receive more stock into our warehouse and anticipate being able to fulfil our customer orders as needed over Christmas.

As always, Furnlink strives for excellence. Our operations and warehouse teams are constantly working to ensure that we do everything we possibly can to dispatch orders on time and in perfect condition. All orders are dispatched within 24 hours if they are in stock, and scheduled orders are always dispatched on the scheduled dispatch date.

What can you do to assist?
If you have an order for Furnlink to send, please place it with our customer service team as early as possible so we can allocate the stock and prepare it for delivery in good time. Customer orders are added to the warehouse dispatch list on a ‘first come first serve’ basis, and it is not uncommon for our dispatch list to become full early in the day during this busy time of the year. Orders placed after this cut off time fall over into the next day’s dispatch list.

If your order can be placed early and scheduled for dispatch at a later date, please let us know. This helps us to plan our packing lists and truck runs to accommodate our customers as best we can.

A link to track your order is provided when your invoice is emailed to you. Please use this link to check where your delivery is. It’s the same link that our operations team use to track deliveries.

If you do experience a delay in your delivery, you can notify us by sending an email to sales@furnlink.com.au with the invoice number for reference. We will investigate the issue as soon as we can, and if needed we will contact the freight company to find out more information. Please be patient while waiting for information from freight companies. They are very busy and handling a lot of inquiry. When they receive a request for more information on a delivery, it often takes time to track exactly where an order is and why it is delayed. Sometimes this involves doing an actual ‘depot search’ where they physically check their warehouses to locate the goods.

Our commitment

The team at Furnlink are 100% committed to making sure our customers receive the best service possible. As we head into the busy end of year season, and the hospitality industry reopens in some states, we are determined to see our customers get the service they deserve.