Biggest week ever expected for Australia Post after massive weekend in shopping
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Australia Post sorting technology in action
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Australia Post (AP) has a record parcels-handling weekend under its belt and the pre-Christmas transport and logistics period reaches a crescendo.
The domestic post and parcels giant puts the immense activity down to the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping events, reporting that e-commerce was up 39 per cent year-on-year for the sales period and an estimated 5 million parcels processed over the weekend.
The sales push has extended through the week and Australia Post is still delivering record volumes, and on current estimates, this week will be the biggest in Australia Post’s history.
Australia Post Group chief operating officer Bob Black says it again showed not only how much Australians have embraced relatively new shopping international shopping traditions, but that Australia Post’s investment in its network has paid dividends.
“Right across the country we’ve had new facilities and new automation come online just in time for the peak period, and this weekend, we’ve been able to process more parcels than ever before,” Black continues.
The new facilities include the Brisbane Parcel Facility in Redbank, which is the biggest mail facility in the southern hemisphere and is already processing over 300,000 parcels a day.
“We’ve also recruited more than 3000 new staff in the lead-up to Christmas, helping us deliver Christmas cheer and be part of our biggest Christmas ever,” Black says.
On Black Friday, more than 2 million parcels were delivered – up 18 per cent on Black Friday 2018, and on Cyber Monday, it was more than 2.5 million parcels – up by 12 per cent on last year’s effort.
There were also 300,000 parcels delivered across the weekend, and almost 400 tonnes of freight uplifted across the air network, capitalising on the additional six aircraft in the dedicated freighter fleet, brining capacity to 15 freighters.
Australia Post has invested heavily in its network recently, with a national $900 million three-year investment in infrastructure and automation to strengthen its growing parcels business.