Mass hiring as Australia Post weathers delivery storm

Posties are swapping their bikes for trucks and 50 jobs are up for grabs, as Australia Post restructures its business to weather a delivery storm, with a 90 per cent increase in parcels deliveries compared to last year.

SOME 50 jobs are up for grabs in Queensland – and 600 across Australia – as Australia Post reshuffles its business model to accommodate for a continual onslaught of parcel deliveries.

The postal service has revealed countrywide delivery volumes have almost doubled over the past four weeks – with the current delivery demand almost 90 per cent larger than the same time last year.

Qld jobs boost as $50m injected into 220 projects nationwide

New Acland Stage 3 project inundated with jobseekers

Coronavirus Gold Coast: Online Jobs Finder Queensland portal connects jobseekers with new employment opportunities

Current data shows that 400,000 parcels are delivered across Queensland, alone each day, with delivery rates skyrocketing amid coronavirus travel and shopping restrictions.

Around two million parcels are delivered on average each day across Australia.

In response to the increased demand, Australia Post acting group chief operating officer Rod Barnes said 15 new postal facilities would be opened across the country.

This included a pop-up facility at Molendinar on the Gold Coast.

Australia Post are hiring some 600 new employees across the country, and 50 in Queensland. Picture: Mike Keating

“With our business adapting to the challenges the current pandemic presents, our normal practice of delivery has been impacted,” Mr Barnes said.

“We are experiencing significant delivery delays due to limited flights, hygiene and social distancing requirements in our network to preserve the community’s safety, and an increase in parcel volumes as more people shop online.”

“The re-purpose and opening of 15 new facilities around the country, and the employment of more than 600 casuals, will assist in the network being able to sustain the current parcel delivery demands and reduce delays.”

Letter delivery demand had decreased for the service – dropping as low as half the expected demand in recent times.

In response to the volatile demand, posties across the country will be substituting their trademark motorcycles for delivery vans in order to better respond to increased parcel postage.

“This retraining of 2000 posties is part of a broader Australia Post response to manage significant disruption brought about by different lifestyles under COVID-19 restrictions.

Mr Barnes said Australia Post has also chartered an additional eight freighter flights, increasing the company’s dedicated freighter flights to 17 per day.

“These flights provide some relief and have improved our Express Post priority service deliveries across major capital cities by the next business day,” Mr Barnes said.

“Unfortunately, they do not substitute reduced access to capacity on passenger planes, and we cannot ensure the speed of deliveries at the same level as prior to the pandemic.”

Mr Barnes said he hoped the public would remain respectful to postage staff despite any delays in delivery time.

“Our people continue to work tirelessly under difficult circumstances, so we’re asking everyone to be kind and treat our dedicated people with the courtesy and respect they deserve – whether it be in a call centre, post office or dropping your delivery off,” Mr Barnes said.

“Aggressive and abusive behaviour towards our people will not be tolerated.”