Australia Post delivered 37m parcels in December

Australia Post has announced that it made more than 37m parcel deliveries during December.

Australia Post Chief Operations Officer and Executive General Manager, eCommerce Delivery, Bob Black said more than 2,000 extra staff were employed to handle the record volumes and help ensure Australians received their Christmas goodies.

“We made more than 37m parcel deliveries in the four weeks leading up to Christmas, that’s almost 20% more deliveries per day compared to last year, making 2017 our biggest festive season ever,” said Black.

“On average our drivers and posties made more than 5 deliveries per household across Australia, making it a huge team effort.”

“In the final week before Christmas, we delivered more than 11m parcels alone, and more than 100m greeting cards and letters. Speed of delivery was a key consideration for many customers, with several days in the week before Christmas recording increases of more than 30% across our Premium and Express services.”

Black said that customers had also made extensive use of Australia Post’s delivery options, including weekend deliveries and extended trading hours, as well as parcel redirections, parcel pick up directly from Australia Post facilities, and safe drop, which allows a resident to nominate a safe place for parcels to be left at their property when they are not at home.

Black added that the parcel rush is not yet other and it is “very much all hands on deck still”, as Australia Post is still seeing record volumes through its network “due to some amazing sales”.

Overall, said Australia Post, online shopping purchases in Australia grew 15% in 2017 compared with 2016.