Australia Post reveals key Christmas delivery deadlines

Austalia Post has released its Christmas delivery deadline dates, warning this year’s haul is expected to be its biggest ever.

Christmas is just around the corner and Australia Post has issued a warning ahead of what is expected to be its busiest ever period.

In a statement released on Thursday morning, the national postal service warned delivery volumes are “already setting records” and they expect more than 52 million parcels to be sent at Christmas time, which would beat last year’s all-time high.

Australia Post has revealed the deadlines you need to meet if you want your online order to arrive in time.

Monday December 13 is the key date for those using Parcel Post, while a week later, December 20, is the cut-off for Express Post.

The postal company warned those sending to or from Perth, Darwin or anywhere outside of metro areas should send even earlier.

Christmas cards should be sent by December 16.

There is no hard and fast deadline for gifts going overseas but Australia Post warned to do so “as soon as possible”, as cut-off dates vary depending on the destination.

Australia Post has revealed when you should send your Christmas presents.

Australia Post Executive General Manager Gary Starr said preparations for the peak season were already well underway, including recruiting a record more than 4000 Christmas casual team members.

“We’re seeing record parcel volumes with more than 5.9 million households shopping online a month – that’s more than half of all Australian households, and it’s showing no signs of slowing as we head into the online sales season and Christmas,” Mr Starr said.

“That is why we’ve planned ahead with extra airfreight capacity, weekend deliveries and recruitment of thousands of new team members to ramp up our delivery services, parcel sorting and customer care, and we’ll be delivering right up until Christmas Eve.

“We encourage people to make a note of these important delivery dates, because although we‘ll deliver items sent after these dates as quickly as we can, they may not arrive until after Christmas.”

People are urged to check the Australia Post website for updates.

Australia Post isn’t the only company to issue a warning.

It’s not the first warning shot fired over delays expected for Christmas time.

The world is in the throes of a shipping crisis predicted to last until 2023.

There’s a massive backlog in shipping after the Evergiven got stuck in the Suez canal, with up to 30-40 containers at any given time are sitting in China unable to get through.

Major staff shortages at Chinese factories because of coronavirus infections has resulted in reduced manufacturing capabilities and less products to go around.

Ningbo, a major port city in China, ground all shipments to a halt for two weeks in August after a port worker tested positive to Covid-19.

Last month, three of China’s busiest ports had to shut down temporarily due to a typhoon.

This last closure caused experts to forecast a $14 billion hit to the global trade industry.

News.com.au previously reported that customers should start buying online Chrtistmas presents as soon as possible.

Furniture and electronics are set to take the worst hit.