Olympic Disruption Advice

The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will have a major impact on the road networks surrounding and leading up to all the official venues. This means that deliveries to or near any of the Olympic routes may be delayed. Delays of deliveries of helium and balloons can be expected between the 9th July and the 10th September.

Where will the disruption be?

The biggest impact of the Games will be felt in and around competition venues and across central London, where Games competitions, Live Sites and planned parallel events will affect the surrounding areas. There are 37 competition venues across the country, of which 27 are in London. This means that most businesses operating in and around London will be affected by the Games to some extent.

To see an official, interactive map that lists all of the Olympic areas and venues, please visit the London 2012 wesbite.

Although most of the disruption will be in these areas, we anticipate a knock on effect across the country with deliveries with Royal Mail, couriers and gas companies being affected.

More information about the dates and locations of the various events can be found here, and information about each venue can be found here.

Lockdown Venues

There will be some areas within the Olympic area that will have much heightened security. No couriers are allowed to deliver in these areas other than the official courier of the Olympics, UPS. UPS have therefore agreed with other courier companies to deliver their parcels within the lockdown areas for an extra charge of £25 + VAT. If you request your delivery to be to one of these areas we will contact you to confirm you are happy with this £25 + VAT charge or if you would prefer to have your order delivered to a different location. The lockdown areas are:

Printed Balloons

If you have ordered printed balloons it is probably for a specific event on a particular date at a particular location. If you are requesting delivery to one of the above locations there is a good chance your balloons will not arrive on time depending on the lead time you have.

We therefore suggest:

1. Order in as far in advance as possible, even if you are outside of the Olympic areas.
2. Have your order delivered to a location outside of any of the Olympic areas. Even if this means you have to collect your order from a different location, it does mean you will have your balloons for your event. If you are happy to risk delivery to a location in or near one of the Olympic areas, we are afraid we are unable to guarantee delivery by any specific date over the Olympic period.

Website orders

If ordering from our website or on the phone your items will be sent either by Royal Mail for smaller standard delivery items or by courier for larger standard or express delivery items.

Royal Mail state that the services should be affected very little, however we expect some delays to occur. We send our items out by First Class and we usually state delivery within 2-5 days (even though they are often delivered the next day). We suggest allowing a little longer than this for your delivery.

Courier deliveries will be affected far more than Royal Mail due to their smaller network covering larger areas. Our main courier is DPD and more detailed information is available on their website.

We also use other couriers occasionally. They will be affected in much the same way as DPD.

We suggest:

1. Order in as far in advance as possible.
2. Have your order delivered to a location outside of any of the Olympic areas. This may mean you have to collect your order from elsewhere however it does mean you will have your balloons for your event. If you are happy to risk delivery to a location in or near one of the Olympic areas, delivery by any specific date over the Olympic period can’t be guaranteed.

If your items are sent by Royal Mail you will be able to collect them from your local Royal Mail sorting office should they not be able to deliver them.

If your items are sent by courier, you will be able to collect them from the local courier depot. These are sometime quite far away from your address depending on where you are, however they are normally very helpful and stay open normally until around 7pm (can vary from depot to depot).

Helium cylinder orders

When hiring helium cylinders we use local gas agents and BOC depots to deliver your gas to you. These agents and BOC depots will all be affected by this disruption in the Olympic areas. We have been told that they “will unfortunately be unable to provide a normal delivery service from July 9th to September 10th 2012”.

Due to some of the BOC depots being right in the middle of the London Olympic area, they have announced that they will be closing for the entire period. We will advise you of any problems with your order.

To help increase the likelihood of receiving your helium we suggest:

1. Order in as far in advance as possible, even if you are outside of the Olympic areas. We normally suggest a couple of days before when you require your helium but for dates in July, August and September please arrange for your helium to be delivered at least a week in advance.
2. Have your order delivered to a location outside of any of these areas.
3. Collect from your local gas agent. There are lots of gas agents all over the country and usually within a few miles of where you are. This might be the safest option for you and will save you some money! We do not recommend collecting L-size cylinders due to their size and weight (5 feet and 13 stone!).

Our promise to you

We will do our best to achieve what it is you require. Our promise to you is to:

1. Do our absolute best, working with all our delivery partners, to get your orders to you when you need them.
2. Communicate any issues with you as soon as we are made aware of them.
3. Work with you to try to resolve any problems as efficiently and effectively as possible.
4. Be honest about what we are capable of doing and why any problems may have occurred.

The Olympics are going to be amazing so we hope you will get time to enjoy them wherever you are over the coming weeks.

The Team at Signature Balloons.