Online shopping boosts volume to record levels.

 

Australia Post opened 15 new processing facilities and commenced recruitment for 600 casuals into the network and call centre to assist in managing the upsurge parcel delivery demand.

 

Parcel deliveries around the country have continued to average almost two million parcels per day since just before Easter. Australia Post earlier this month announced that it will retrain 2000 motorbike posties to deliver and process parcels to help manage the unprecedented parcel volumes

 

These volumes have almost doubled in the last four weeks, up by 90 per cent compared to last year, as more householders shop online as they self-isolate.  At the same time, demand for other core products, including letters, have been volatile and many have halved.

 

Australia Post acting group CEO, Rod Barnes, said: “We are experiencing significant delivery delays due to limited flights, hygiene and social distancing requirements in our network to preserve the community’s safety, and an increase in parcel volumes as more people shop online.

 

“The re-purpose and opening of 15 new facilities around the country, and the employment of more than 600 casuals, will assist in the network being able to sustain the current parcel delivery demands and reduce delays.”

 

“To assist in getting these parcels to customers doors, we have refocussed 700 of our people, a mix of posties and drivers from our StarTrack business, to provide additional van deliveries across the country.”

 

“We’re progressively making these changes and continue to look at ways to optimise our delivery network to meet the current demand of parcel volumes. The majority of parcels are still arriving on time, but we ask and thank our customers for their patience, as we work as hard as we can to get parcels to you as quickly as possible,” Barnes said.