Australia Post set for biggest delivery day in history after massive online sales weekend

In the midst of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, Australia Post expects today to be its biggest parcel delivery day ever, thanks to a 45 per cent increase in online sales since the same time last year.

Today, Australia Post expects to set a new delivery day record, with more than 3.1 million parcels expected to be delivered nationwide, eclipsing the record set last year.

The massive shopping event, which saw some retailers kick-off sales as early as last Monday, has seen Australians click into a frenzy online with eCommerce up more than 45 per cent year-on-year for the sales period.

In November, Australia Post delivered over 40 million parcels, with an average of over two million parcels being delivered daily across the postal network every day this month.

Australia Post Executive General Manager Deliveries, Rod Barnes, said Australians had come to rely on online shopping this year, and had fallen in love with the convenience.

“Our people have worked incredibly hard all year, demonstrating agility and resilience to manage volumes we would traditionally have had months to prepare for,” Mr Barnes said.

“We’ve made the right investments in our network and stand ready today to set a new record – the busiest day in our 210-year history – as we head towards our biggest peak in history.

“In a challenging year, we have continued to find ways to improve our service, with more than 60 new or repurposed facilities to support additional parcel processing and retail parcel pick-up locations. We also have new automation coming online right across the country in the lead up to the Christmas period to deliver for our customers.

“We’re hiring 5000 extra people to help deliver for our customers across the country, have chartered 18 freighter flights, and will have 3000 extra vehicles on the road.

“Temporary regulatory relief has enabled the upskilling of 2700 posties including 2000 now delivering in vans, so we are ready to get a record number of parcels to their destinations and spread Christmas cheer for Australians everywhere.”

Online shopping trends recently have indicated categories such as food and liquor, home and garden, variety store purchases and health and beauty have all been booming, up 72 per cent from this time last year, with traditionally popular Christmas categories such as toys and games, and fashion and jewellery also tipped to fill stockings again.

Australia Post is reminding the community with more posties and drivers out delivering more parcels than ever before, to help keep them safe by looking out for them on the road and keeping dogs secured if they are expecting a delivery.