Australia Post Extends Parcel Processing Capacity
In response to Australia’s booming online sales, Australia Post has announced an additional $400 million to be invested by mid-2022 in new parcel facilities, fleet and technology.
The latest investment brings the total investment committed to over $1 billion over three years, following the recently opened major parcel processing facilities in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, as well as five new facilities currently underway in Perth (WA), Bayswater (VIC), Western Sydney (NSW), Botany (NSW) and Tullamarine (VIC).
Like most logistics companies, Australia Post has seen a dramatic increase in demand for its services during the pandemic.
This demand has driven the increased investment and will mean improvements in parcel scanning and tracking in the network, plus extra capacity to handle growing parcel processing volumes.
Australia Post Group Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director Paul Graham said “Australia Post has an unrivalled delivery and post office network. We know our customers want their parcel delivered as quickly and efficiently as possible so that’s why we are further increasing capacity with five brand new processing facilities before our peak period in 2022.”
The increase in facilities, including the addition of pop-up facilities, adds 30% extra processing capacity this Christmas, the statement read.
“We are also investing to extend our already extensive last mile delivery network – with a further $31 million committed to the new electric delivery vehicle fleet – which are better for the environment and safer for our people.”
Australia Post has seen online shopping increase by as much as 32 per cent during the pandemic, with the organisation consistently delivering more than 10 million parcels a week across the country.
Over 5.7 million Australian households are now consistently shopping online and it is expected online shopping will continue to grow over the coming years by 9-10 per cent per annum on average over the next decade.