Covid-struck December sees record-breaking parcel spike
The ill wind of Covid-19 has blown a great deal of good Australia Post’s way.
As Sydney battled new outbreaks in December, the traditional busy month of a year like nothing seen in a century had the organisation delivering more than 52 million parcels, an almost 20 per cent increase on the previous year.
The previous December’s total was 40 million.
The year’s strong growth in online business continued into December, with 19 days for the month where more than two million parcels were delivered across the country.
During the month, more than 21 million customers were also served at Australia Post’s more than 4,000 post offices, including regional and remote locations, the federal government-owned enterprise notes.
Making use of up to 20 dedicated freighters and additional cargo space on limited domestic passenger flights, Australia Post reports that it flew more t6han 7,400 tonnes of airfreight, up 76 per cent when compared to the same month the previous year, including more than 490 tonnes on the busiest night.
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Acting chief executive officer and managing director Rodney Boys says that while the organisation had predicted it would be Australia Post’s busiest Christmas ever, it exceeded expectations.
“There is no denying that online shopping grew strongly through 2020, and this reached a new level in December as millions of people chose to buy their Christmas gifts online,” Boys continues.
“Ongoing Covid-19 restrictions, social distancing and reduced domestic flights coupled with significantly higher parcel volumes, meant that delivering Christmas 2020 for all Australians was always going to be incredibly challenging.
“We prepared extensively, opening 60 new or re-purposed facilities, adding 3,000 vehicles and putting on additional dedicated planes, all to keep delivering for our customers – 2,700 posties undertook additional training with over 2,000 transitioning to deliver parcels in vans and an extra 5,000 people were recruited.
“These results were only made possible through the absolute commitment and dedication of our incredible team and our licensed post office and delivery contractor partners across the country that worked tirelessly under difficult circumstances for their communities to deliver a truly phenomenal Christmas.”
The federal government has the report in to the circumstances surrounding what is viewed in many quarters as the forced resignation of Boys’ predecessor, Christine Holgate, in November but this is yet to be released.
Federal communications minister Paul Fletcher put the performance down in part to the government allowing “more operational flexibility to meet community demand for parcels and essential services”.
Parcels volumes were buoyed in December as Australians bought up big on food and liquor, fashion, and home and garden products up 50 per cent, 37 per cent and 36 per cent respectively compared to December 2019.
Fashion accessories, adventure and sporting items and books also proved popular with strong growth compared to November.