We are living in crazy times.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 has forced the federal government to implement social distancing rules, travel restrictions and business closures, and as a result, many industries have been hit hard – including our beloved postal service.
With many people now in self-isolation and working from home, Aussie’s have increased shopping online during the pandemic with online department store purchases up 473 per cent, while fashion purchases increased by 203 per cent.
It is no surprise then that there has been a massive strain on the postal service.
Proving to be busier than the annual Christmas period, Australia Post is delivering roughly 1.8 million parcels a day – up 80% in a year. However, with the increase in online purchasing, there are still lengthy delays to many online orders, angering Australians waiting at home on deliveries.
In a report with the ABC, Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate blamed the blow-out in delivery times on the grounding of much of Australia’s air freight network (with planes usually transporting 700 tons of parcels a week), and while Aus Post is chartering extra planes for parcels, there is still a disrupt in delivery times.
“Our challenge is that when you switch [to] a chartered network from what was the scheduled network, we just can’t guarantee the times that we have previously,” Ms Holgate told 7.30.
There’s not a lot of light at the end of the tunnel for the Aus Post just yet either, with reports yesterday claiming millions of Australians will have to wait longer for letters now as posties cut delivery to a few times a week to help cope with record demand amid the coronavirus pandemic.
This comes as the federal government agreed to an Australia Post request to suspend its delivery standards. That will allow it to suspend priority letter services, let posties in metropolitan areas deliver letters every second day and allow five days for intrastate posting.
Australia Post will also retrain 2000 motorbike posties across the country. They will trade their bikes for vans or move into warehouses to help cope with the demand for parcels being sent each day.
The changes take effect immediately. They will be reviewed after June 30, 2021.
