FOR the first time ever Australia Post delivered more than 40 million parcels during December, making it the biggest ever month for parcel volumes for the organisation.
The growing popularity of online shopping and online sales events, as well as strong Christmas Eve and Boxing Day sales, contributed to an 11.7pc increase from the previous December.
Australia Post chief operating officer Bob Black said it was all hands on deck during Christmas, with over 3000 extra staff employed to handle the huge volumes.
“We made more than 40 million parcel deliveries in December and our hardworking posties delivered more than 40pc of these as well as more than 210 million letters,” Mr Black said.
“Our busiest day was December 17 when we delivered a record three million parcels across the country – by far the biggest day in our history.
“What we did not expect was to have a lot of shoppers race to the finish line to post their festive parcels, with our people delivering a whopping 2.7 million items on Christmas Eve – our next busiest day of the month and equal second busiest day in history.”
Mr Black said Australians were embracing online shopping like never before, with Australia Post revealing last year online purchases had grown by almost 20pc in 12 months.
“Our research found that people were buying up to 19.2pc more items online. By 2020, we expect one in 10 items will be bought online.”
