Australia Post: Christmas cut off dates and estimates revealed
There's still one way to get your Christmas parcels to arrive on time. But it's going to cost you.
Wentworth Courier
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UPDATE
Express post is now the only option for guaranteed Christmas Day delivery according to Australia Post.
With regular post deadlines of December 8 for WA and the Northern Territory and December 13 for the rest of the country now behind us, you'll have to fork out the extra for express and act swiftly if you want your parcel to arrive before December 25.
For parcels going to and from WA and the NT you only have until December 15 to send them express for Christmas.
The rest of the country have until December 20.
The cut off for interstate Christmas cards to arrive is December 16 and for same state letters it is December 20.
Australia Post Executive General Manager Deliveries Rod Barnes said they set a delivery record of 52 million parcels last December and this year they were on track to exceed it.
“We’re coming off the back of the biggest online shopping month ever in November, so we know a lot of people did get their Christmas shopping done early during those big cyber sales and as a result we’ve been delivering over 2.3 million parcels each weekday,” Mr Barnes said.
“But for those who haven’t had the chance to finalise their gifts yet, we’re doing everything we can to give them the best chance of arriving including delivering on weekends and until early evening where needed, up until Christmas Eve.
“If people do miss those sending deadlines, we will still do our very best to get those presents delivered in time, but it’s important to know that they may not arrive until after Christmas.”
EARLIER
Australia Post’s Christmas cut off dates have been released as staff gear up for the busiest time of year. But it’s bad news for booze lovers and the express service may not live up to its name.
Australia Post has overcome the Covid backlog in time for Christmas but its express service still isn’t what it used to be and there’s bad news for booze lovers.
Christmas cut off dates have been released with express post parcels sent to and from any state or territory with the exclusion of WA and the NT to be lodged by December 20 and regular post parcels by December 13.
The cut off dates for parcels to and from WA and the NT are December 15 for express and December 8 for regular.
Christmas cards sent within the same state must be mailed by December 20 with interstate letters to be sent by December 16.
Meanwhile the postal service has warned of further delays for packages containing wine as they must all be scanned manually.
A spokeswoman for Australia Post said this festive season would surpass anything they’ve ever encountered before.
“While Christmas is traditionally our busiest time, Australia Post has been managing Christmas-like volumes for 18 months, and we expect this Christmas to be our biggest ever,” she said.
“That’s why we’ve hired record numbers of people in the past year, and are adding more than 5000 new people ahead of Christmas with 80 per cent of those roles already filled.
“Australia Post has added 30 per cent extra processing capacity this Christmas thanks to new permanent and pop-up processing facilities, we’ll have more planes in the air and more drivers out on the roads including on weekends, and will be delivering right up to and including Christmas Eve.
“While we’ll deliver items sent after our recommended sending dates as quickly as we can, they may not arrive until after Christmas, so we suggest sending parcels as early as you can to give them the best chance of arriving in time.
“We encourage people to download the Australia Post mobile app to keep up to date with what’s happening with their Christmas deliveries, receive notifications about when parcels are due to arrive, and to choose the best place to receive their packages.”
Australia Post’s famous next business day express delivery service remains on hold with little variance in estimated wait times between express and regular on some routes but huge differences on others.
Most express deliveries within NSW currently take two days but some are taking up to three.
This compares to most regular post within NSW arriving within two days but some deliveries taking up to four.
If you’re waiting on an express interstate parcel to arrive in NSW you’re looking at 2-3 business days if it is coming from the ACT, Queensland or Tasmania.
Express parcels arriving in NSW from the NT are taking three to five days, from Victoria and SA the estimate is two to four days and from WA you’re looking at a three to four day wait.
There are significant differences in the wait times for regular post parcels coming in to NSW.
Parcels from Victoria and SA are taking four to six business days, ACT two to four days, Queensland three to five days, NT six to eight, Tasmania five to eight and WA six to 10.
On the other hand if you’re the one sending the parcel from NSW your recipients will generally get it a little more quickly.
An express parcel originating in NSW with take one to three business days to reach the ACT, three to five days to the NT, two to three days to Queensland or South Australia, two to four days to get to Tasmania or Western Australia and your poor Victorian will have to wait three to eight days.
A regular parcel post originating in NSW will take two to four business days to reach the ACT, seven to 10 to get to the NT, three to five to Queensland, around four to seven days to be delivered to SA, seven to 11 to Tasmania, eight to 14 to get to Victoria and five to eight days to reach WA.
Also keep in mind what time parcels are dropped off.
Anything lodged in a metropolitan area post office after 3pm will be included in the following day’s delivery and the collection times for red street post boxes can be as early as 12pm.
Australia Post says the best way to have your parcel sorted quickest is to clearly address it and correctly package it.
If you are often not at home to accept deliveries, Australia Post now offers free parcel lockers at more than 1000 locations around the country, meaning customers can pick up their parcels any time of the day or night.
For more information go HERE
For full details on delivery time estimates visit HERE
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