Update from Australia Post (as at 26/8/20)
Important update on our operations
Over the last three weeks, Australia Post has experienced a significant increase in demand as Victorians have increased their online buying due to stage 4 lockdowns. So much so, that our parcel volumes in Victoria for August are up approximately 150% year-on-year compared to the national average of 90%.
At the same time, our business has been required to make additional adjustments in our processing and deliveries workforce to comply with the State Government's COVID safe restrictions.
From the very start of the pandemic, we have been clear that our strategy has been to protect our people, serve our customers and safeguard the business.
Safety of our people is not-negotiable and the current situation in Victoria, with massive volumes and severe congestion in our network, has us at a point of concern for the safety of our workforce.
To make sure we can still safely deliver for your customers, the following changes are immediately necessary:
No Weekend Collections in Victoria
There will be no collections in Victoria this weekend – the last pickup for the week will be Friday 28 August 2020 by 8pm and the next collection will be Monday 31 August 2020 commencing from 5am.
Victoria destined Parcels
With the massive demand and workforce capacity constraints, we foresee an additional 3 day delay for deliveries in Victoria. This is both within and into Victoria.
This means, any lodgements made in other States destined for Victoria may be held in those States for up to 3 business days to allow Victoria to work through the present demand.
Father's Day
For deliveries across Australia, we recommend at least the following lodgement dates for delivery before Father's Day on Sunday 6 September 2020:
Parcel Post and letters – Friday 28 August 2020Express Post parcels – Monday 31 August 2020For items lodged after these dates, whilst we will try our best, we do not expect to be able to meet delivery for Father's Day
We will keep you updated regularly over the next few weeks and anticipate reviewing the situation in line with the easing of level 4 restrictions.
We appreciate the implications of these decisions and want to assure you we are doing our very best within these extremely challenging times.
I'm sure you can appreciate we cannot compromise the safety of our people and I appreciate your ongoing support as we work through this together.
