NZ Post brings forward Christmas delivery dates due to expected Covid-19 delays
Tuesday, 6 October 2020
New Zealand Post has brought forward its Christmas parcel deadlines for sending overseas by a week to ensure they arrived in timedue to expected delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
NZ Post chief operating officer Brendon Main said the state-owned postal service was encouraging people to complete their Christmas shopping as fast as possible to ensure their presents arrived on time.
“It’s been an unpredictable year, so we want to make sure Kiwis are ready for Christmas in plenty of time,” Main said.
He also advised customers to check the NZ Post website for any updates on deadlines due to the uncertainty of the worldwide pandemic.
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While Christmas was typically NZ Post’s busiest time of the year, online shopping during the Covid-19 lockdowns had already broken parcel delivery records, Main said.
Online shopping was up 30 per cent on the same time last year.
Main said when the country moved into alert level 3 earlier in the year, NZ Post delivered about 3.5 million parcels in two weeks, about 200 parcels a minute.
NZ Post made a $6 million profit after tax despite revenues plunging during the Covid-19 national lockdown earlier this year.
The result for the year June 30 marked a turnaround from the previous year’s loss of $121m, which was driven by write-downs in its assets as letter volumes continued to decline.
But the pandemic boosted e-commerce as more households switched to shopping online, and post-lockdown parcel volumes reached levels NZ Post had not expected to see until 2023.
Main said NZ Post had learnt from the busy period and was preparing another surge before Christmas.
“It is difficult to know for sure what the next few months are going to bring for online shopping in New Zealand.
“We’ve planned for a range of different scenarios and are bringing on three additional sites to manage surges in volumes, 200 more courier vans, 185 extra flights, 350 additional processing people and more than 1500 extra transport runs to deliver Christmas presents for New Zealanders,” Main said.
Sending deadlines
Within New Zealand:
Post and parcels – December 21.
Courier – December 23.
Sending overseas:
Australia – Air November 30, courier December 7, express courier December 14.
South Pacific, Asia, North America, Britain and Europe – Air November 27, courier December 4, express courier December 10.
Rest of the world – Air November 25, courier December 2, express courier December 8.
You Shop service for Britain and United States – November 30