As the 100-day countdown begins to Christmas Day, a leading contracting specialist is heralding a major opportunity for contractors.

Marcus Green, Director at Nova Contracting comments: “Retailers and marketers are often criticised for putting Christmas on the shopper agenda far too early, but for the logistics sector planning has been underway for some time already – for many, straight after last Christmas. Commercial drivers and logistics workers are in huge demand in the run-up to Christmas as online shopping and home deliveries increasingly become the shopping method of choice for UK customers. 

According to specialist e-commerce consultancy Salmon, shoppers will spend an incredible £5 billion during the extended “Black Friday” weekend – November 24 to so-called Cyber Monday November 28 – and an ever-increasing proportion of that spend will be online. E-commerce captured most of the spending growth last Christmas – up 7.4 percent in December against just 0.1 percent for physical stores, according to Visa and that means growing demand for timely and reliable home deliveries. 

For temporary workers and their contracting support teams, there is a tremendous opportunity, provided they have planned for the spike in demand. Particularly as contractors look to specialists to ensure all their compliance and tax requirements are fully covered in a fast-changing legislative climate. The challenge for our sector will be to reach even more people who might be considering the contract working business model, with key messages about the benefits of flexible working and the opportunities in a dynamic employment landscape.”