Prepare your business for the Olympic Road Network restrictions
Between mid-July and mid-September, the Olympic Road Network (ORN) restrictions will be in effect in London, the surrounding area and in other regions where the games are taking place which could affect your deliveries. There may also be restrictions during the Olympic Torch Relay. To avoid disruptions to your business, we recommend that you plan ahead by monitoring and managing stock levels, so you do not fall short from delayed deliveries.

Keep informed about potential disruptions
Transport for London (TFL) has a useful site which includes a guide for businesses, detailing where potential issues regarding deliveries and collections may occur during the Olympic Games. TFL are also running a series of workshops for freight operators and their customers to help them prepare for potential disruption. Most of the major carriers have information about their plans during this period (see below).

Royal Mail
Parcelforce
Yodel
City Link
MetaPack

Managing buyers’ expectations
If you’re likely to be affected by the road restrictions, we recommend you edit your listings to include a statement that there could be delays in dispatch. For example, ‘Due to road restrictions during the Olympic Games, there may be delays to delivery times. We’ll do our best to keep you informed.’

Delivery times and effect on Detailed Seller Ratings
We don’t want sellers to be unfairly impacted as a result of the disruption to the road network. We will be monitoring Dispatch time Detailed Seller Ratings (DSRs) during this time and if we see a significant increase in the number of low DSRs which can be attributed to the ORN, we will automatically de-score the low DSRs for these transactions at a later date, in advance of your evaluation cycle.

Proposed delivery surcharge
We are aware that a small number of carriers are proposing a surcharge of £1 for deliveries to affected areas. We can confirm that Parcelforce will not be applying this surcharge during the period for labels bought via the eBay / PayPal label flows. As this proposed surcharge is being planned by a small number of carriers we will not be adjusting shipping cost caps during the period and advise sellers to contact their carrier for more information.

Regards,
The eBay Team