No guarantees as NZ Post struggles under the weight of one million parcels a day

NZ Post is struggling to deliver all parcels before Christmas as they process one million parcels a day. Photo / Hawke's Bay Today

New Zealand Post is struggling under the weight of a record one million parcels and letters a day and can't guarantee every Christmas parcel will make it under the tree in time.

Chief operating officer Mark Stewart said this was the busiest festive season it's ever faced.

Stewart said they knew that would be the case and have been planning for it for a long time, but the volume of mail has exceeded even their most optimistic forecasts.

"To give you a sense of the planning that's gone into this, we have got hundreds of additional vans and other vehicles, hundreds of additional people, a thousand additional truck journeys and we've even put on an additional Boeing airplane to cope."

But even with all that, he said NZ Post was "stretched right to the edge."

Stewart admitted to some delays early this week but said they were working flat out last night and will be again today and tomorrow to catch up.

Stewart believed the overwhelming majority of Christmas presents and cards would be delivered by the end of tomorrow.

While he can't guarantee there won't be the odd slip up, Stewart said staff were pulling out all stops to try to make it one hundred percent.