Australia Post delivered more than 40 million parcels during December, making it the biggest ever month for parcel volumes for the organisation.
The growing popularity of online shopping and online sales events, as well as strong Christmas Eve and Boxing Day sales, contributed to an 11.7% increase from the previous December, the postal operator said today.
Chief Operating Officer Bob Black said it was ‘all hands on deck’ over the Christmas period with more than 3,000 extra staff employed across the network to handle the huge volumes.
"We made more than 40 million parcel deliveries in December, and our hardworking posties delivered more than 40% of these, as well as more than 210 million letters," he said. “Our busiest day was Monday 17 December, when we delivered a record three million parcels across the country – by far the biggest day in our history.”
But Black pointed out: "What we didn’t expect was to have a lot of shoppers race to the finish line to post their festive parcels, with our people delivering a whopping 2.7 million items on Christmas Eve – our next busiest day of the month and equal second busiest day in history."
Explaining the trends behind the parcel volume surge, the long-serving logistics and postal industry executive said that Australians were embracing online shopping like never before. Australia Post revealed last year that online purchases had grown by almost 20% in 12 months.
“Our research found that people were buying up to 19.2% more items online. By 2020, we expect one in 10 items will be bought online,” Black predicted.
“Online shopping is building momentum as a channel of choice, where customers can make the most of online deals and choose customisable delivery options with Australia Post. This means online shoppers can buy the brands they love no matter where they live,” he concluded.
