NZ Post's new Auckland Processing Centre (APC) is on Langley Rd, Wiri. Photo / Michael Craig
NZ Post's new Auckland Processing Centre (APC) is on Langley Rd, Wiri. Photo / Michael Craig
NZ Post’s 30,000sq m Auckland Processing Centre (APC) has been officially opened by the Minister for State Owned Enterprises, Simeon Brown, and NZ Post chair Dame Paula Rebstock, who described the facility as the largest intergenerational investment by the business in its history.
The facility has been two years in the making, with roughly $200 million to $250m spent on the total automation programme, making it the largest infrastructure investment NZ Post has ever made.
NZ Post opened the domestic side of the facility this time last year, but now the international capability is fully operational.
The APC has six parcel sorters and roughly 4km of conveyors working their way around the site, with half the building designated for domestic product and the other for international.
During peak e-commerce seasons such as Christmas and Black Friday, the facility will be able to process between 300,000 and 400,000 parcels a day, with the ability for an international parcel to come through the gateway, be processed through the system, and then be ready for delivery in just 10 minutes.
NZ Post chief executive David Walsh says the new facility is important to keep up with changing consumer needs. Photo / Michael Craig
NZ Post chief executive David Walsh said the facility has the capacity to grow for the next 15-20 years.
“The APC is a critical piece of infrastructure that will benefit New Zealand as e-commerce continues to grow here and internationally, as well as supporting New Zealand export businesses that are trading internationally,” Walsh said.
“In the years to come, we expect Kiwis to shop online more often, with an increased dependency on a delivery network that is reliable and offers greater visibility in real time.”
Walsh, who has been with NZ Post for almost a decade, said that when he started, New Zealanders were buying about one in 20 items online. Now it’s about one in 10.
He said the package sorter was one of the biggest anywhere, with 1800 bags available for items to be sorted into.
Each of those 1800 bags represents a delivery person somewhere in the North Island.
NZ Post's new Auckland Processing Centre (APC) is on Langley Rd, Wiri. Photo / Michael Craig
“I live in Wellington, so one of these bags or two of these bags will be from my courier. We used to have to move all this to Wellington to manually sort it, now it’ll hit Wellington and the courier will pick up that bag and it won’t be sorted again.”
To help simplify the process, parcels are sorted into two machines determined by their size, one for large parcels and the other for anything smaller than a shoe box.
Any oversized parcels or those that contain fragile items are intercepted manually and redirected for processing in a separate area of the facility.
With 200 people working in the facility at any one time at night to process parcels, the new capability also comes with a serious promise from the business.
“Our service promises to pick anything up in New Zealand today and deliver anywhere in New Zealand tomorrow.”
NZ Post Auckland Processing Centre (APC) in Langley Rd, Wiri. Photo / Michael Craig
The new facility will include the presence of the New Zealand Customs Service (Customs) and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) on site.
NZ Post has always worked with MPI and Customs at the international mail centre at Auckland Airport, but Walsh explained that when talks began about investing in parcel automation, it became clear they needed to be part of the process.
“It’s been an incredible relationship because they want to keep the border safe, we want to make sure we can move freight through efficiently.”
Customs operations manager Lesley McLinden said the facility was a massive change from the old environment.
“The automation in the processing and the movement of the packages here, and also within the Customs rooms themselves and the MPI facilities. We share access to X-ray images, which is one of our key risk assessment tools. We also have some more updated examination equipment.”
She said Customs had also worked closely with NZ Post to develop an automated targeting system, which allows team members to see all information about incoming packages and screen them electronically.
Part of the conveyor line includes inspections by Customs sniffer dogs, which are rostered to work in the facility for certain hours of the day before returning to other duties at Auckland Airport.
A Customs officer removes methamphetamine concealed in postal package at NZ Post's new Auckland Processing Centre. Photo / Michael Craig
Despite the level of automation in security screening, human oversight and profiling are always present to ensure the highest level of scrutiny.
Customs and MPI officials explained that all images from X-rays get sent directly into a separate processing room, where they can investigate them and make informed decisions about what to do next, including potentially opening packages when necessary.
“The security integrity of our entire system is really well managed throughout the electronic tracking process, which is a huge step forward in capability for all of us,” one official said.
Walsh said NZ Post had been around for 185 years, and this facility was the next step in its evolution to serve its customers across the country.
Looking ahead, Walsh said he would spend the next three to four years making sure NZ Post continued to be a great New Zealand business and service provider.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business, retail and tourism.
