Australia Post has recorded its biggest ever month in its 211-year history, with more than 52 million parcels delivered during December, an almost 20% increase on the previous year. For 19 days of the month, two million parcels were delivered each day, and the post also served 21 million customers at its 4,000 post offices during December.
Acting chief executive officer and managing director Rodney Boys said the month exceeded expectations: “There is no denying that online shopping grew strongly through 2020, and this reached a new level in December as millions of people chose to buy their Christmas gifts online.
“Ongoing Covid-19 restrictions, social distancing and reduced domestic flights coupled with significantly higher parcel volumes meant that delivering Christmas 2020 for all Australians was always going to be incredibly challenging.
“We prepared extensively, opening 60 new or repurposed facilities, adding 3,000 vehicles and putting on additional dedicated airplanes, all to keep delivering to our customers. Around 2,700 posties undertook additional training with more than 2,000 transitioning to deliver parcels in vans and an extra 5,000 people were recruited.
“These results were only made possible through the absolute commitment and dedication of our incredible team and our licensed post office and delivery contractor partners across the country that worked tirelessly under difficult circumstances for their communities to deliver a truly phenomenal Christmas,” Boys added.