Shannon and Rod Macneil from Kaikohe love their job at this time of year, as customers get into the spirit of giving. Photo / Jenny Ling
Shannon and Rod Macneil from Kaikohe love their job at this time of year, as customers get into the spirit of giving. Photo / Jenny Ling
It’s that time of year when all over the country, posties and courier drivers are rushed off their feet delivering parcels in the lead-up to Christmas.
But Kaikohe-based husband-and-wife courier team Shannon and Rod Macneil couldn’t be happier, as many of their customers get into the spirit of giving to show their appreciation for their hard work during the year.
The Macneil’s will often find gifts with handwritten notes left in the letterbox for them and their team.
It makes them feel appreciated.
“This is our busy time, but we enjoy this time of year, because the customers are so much happier,” Rod said.
The couple have been contracting to NZ Post for two years and are responsible for all courier deliveries in the Kaikohe and the Bay of Islands area, including Paihia, Opua, Haruru and Kawakawa.
Based at the Kaikohe depot, they have a staff of eight people, including five drivers and one postie.
Shannon is also a postie, delivering mail by motorbike, and the couple get help from their two daughters; Mautini, who processes the freight, and Ruadhan, who takes care of paperwork.
A typical day starts at 5am sorting the mail and parcels, with Shannon and the other drivers on the road by 8.30am.
The number of parcels they have to deliver skyrockets during what is their busiest time of year.
NZ Post expects to see parcel volumes increasing by about 50 percent over the next couple of weeks, and has brought in hundreds more people to work across the business.
Since October 31, NZ Post has delivered 315,000 parcels in Northland alone.
“It goes up by a substantial amount,” Rod said.
“We’re a lot busier on the courier side at this time of year.
“We normally do 180 parcels for one of our runs - at the moment we’re doing about 240. That’s about the max we can fit in the van.”
NZ Post staff at the Kaikohe depot. Since October 31, NZ Post has delivered 315,000 parcels in Northland alone.
Before they started their business contracting to NZ Post, the couple were based at the Kerikeri depot, where Shannon worked as a postie and Rod as a courier driver.
The opportunity came up to work for themselves, “and we thought we could do it”.
The Macneil’s said they appreciate their small but dedicated team.
“If we didn’t have them, our job would be so much harder,” Shannon said.
Online spending on physical goods by shoppers in Northland was $17.6 million in October 2022, according to NZ Post.
The largest categories of online spending shopping in Northland were specialty food, groceries and liquor, department, variety and miscellaneous retail stores.
NZ Post business marketing general manager Chris Wong said the company will “continue to monitor online spending trends to see how inflationary and cost of living pressures could impact Kiwis spending over the Christmas period”.
The Macneil’s said they had noticed it was slightly busier last year, which could be attributed to the current cost of living crisis.
