Australia Post saw 20% higher parcel volumes this peak season than the one in 2016. This amounted to more than 37 million parcel deliveries in December alone.

More than 2,000 extra staff were taken on to handle the increased volumes.

Australia Post Chief Operations Officer and Executive General Manager, eCommerce Delivery, Bob Black said “We made more than 37m parcel deliveries in the four weeks leading up to Christmas, that’s almost 20% more deliveries per day compared to last year, making 2017 our biggest festive season ever.”

“On average our drivers and posties made more than 5 deliveries per household across Australia, making it a huge team effort.”

“In the final week before Christmas, we delivered more than 11m parcels alone, and more than 100m greeting cards and letters. Speed of delivery was a key consideration for many customers, with several days in the week before Christmas recording increases of more than 30% across our Premium and Express services.”

According to Black, Australia Post customers made extensive use of its delivery options that include weekend deliveries and extended trading hours, parcel redirections, parcel pickup and a safe drop service where a resident can nominate a safe place to leave a parcel at their home.

Black added that the parcel rush is not yet other and it is “very much all hands on deck still”, as Australia Post is still seeing record volumes through its network “due to some amazing sales”.