Express Post goes slow as Australia Post prioritises parcels

Australia Post has slowed its Express Post delivery guarantee and moved posties off bikes to cope with an avalanche of parcels bought online.

Stephen Goulder delivers the post in Sydney’s West Pennant Hills. Picture AAP

Australia Post has suspended its Express Post next-day delivery guarantee as it starts delivering letters every other day in metropolitan areas, and moves more than 2000 posties off bikes and into vans, to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Three days after securing temporary relief from its community service obligations — which stipulate Australia Post provides a five day delivery service — from the federal government, the postal service wrote to customers saying it was winding back its Express Post product.

Australia Post has already axed its more expensive priority letters service, which accounts for about 12 per cent of all letters revenue, as it redeploys posties to deliver parcels to cope with an online shopping bonanza, fuelled by people self-isolating and working from home.

“We are temporarily suspending the Express Post guarantee of next day delivery as we are unable to commit to this timeframe. Express Post is still available but parcels may not be delivered next business day every time,” Australia Post wrote in a letter to customers.

“At Australia Post, we’re working hard to deliver for our customers in these difficult times. We are however, experiencing significant delivery delays in our network due to limited flights, social distancing requirements and a substantial increase in parcel volumes as more people shop online.”

Australia Post secured the temporary relief from the federal government which will last until June next year to clear the backlog of parcels from the grounding of most of Qantas’ passenger fleet, which it relies on to deliver online shopping orders, Express Post and essential medical supplies across the country.

It is currently delivering almost 2 million parcels a day, volumes normally seen during the postal service’s peak Christmas period.

The demand in Australia Post’s parcel delivery services is at a similar level to the panic buying, which stripped essential items from toilet paper and cleaning suppliers to mince meat and pasta at supermarkets.

To cope with the surge in demand, the major grocery chains employed thousands of extra workers at a time when unemployment has increased dramatically from the COVID-19 pandemic. Woolworths is hiring an extra 20,000 workers, while Coles is employing an extra 5000.

Meanwhile, Australia Post is redeploying 2000 posties from their standard letter delivering duties to help clear the parcels backlog.

Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate said the organisation was being overwhelmed by 1.8 million parcels being sent each day, which are too large to be delivered by posties. Ms Holgate said at the same time letter volumes have halved.

“We will retrain up to 2,000 motorbike posties to process or deliver parcels in vans. This will enable posties to carry more and relieve some of the significant pressure on our parcel delivery drivers, who have been swamped with huge volumes. It will also enable parcels to be delivered every operational day across the country,” Ms Holgate said.