Australia Post warns to post mail early for bumper Christmas

As parcel volumes continue to set record highs, Australia Post is encouraging shoppers to get their Christmas parcels and cards in the mail early.

The postal service is preparing for a record festive season by hiring thousands of casual staff and urging people to get their Christmas shopping done early if they want to post presents and cards.

With parcel volumes already breaking records this year, December is tipped to surpass last year’s 52 million parcels, the company said.

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Australia Post General Manager, Enterprise and Government Solutions, Gary Starr, said preparations for the peak season were well underway, including the recruitment of more than 4000 Christmas casuals.

“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,” Starr said on Thursday.

“That is why we’ve planned ahead with extra air freight 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,” he said

To ensure Christmas gifts and cards arrive on time, Australia Post has set the following deadlines:

Parcels should be posted by December 13 for Parcel Post or December 20 for Express Post.

However, for some locations, including Perth, Darwin and others outside of metro areas, it is recommended that parcels be sent earlier with customers advised to check the Australia Post website.

Christmas cards should be sent by December 16, and customers sending overseas are encouraged to do so as soon as possible as cut-off dates vary depending on the destination.

“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,” Starr said.

WITH NEWS FROM AAP