NZ Post Northland delivery manager Ian Revington has been working for 25 years, says this is the busiest Christmas period he has ever seen. Photo / Tania Whyte
NZ Post Northland delivery manager Ian Revington has been working for 25 years, says this is the busiest Christmas period he has ever seen. Photo / Tania Whyte
Northlanders spent over $800,000 on average every day of October on online shopping, and one stand-out sector has seen 82 per cent growth compared to October 2020.
And Northlanders' spend up saw more than 400,000 courier parcels delivered in the region last month.
Online shopping for health and beauty productsin Northland have contributed to the $1.4m spend in this sector for the month of October alone.
However, this sector is still quite small for online spending relatively, making up five per cent of the total online spend which was $25.9M in October.
New Zealand Post courier service is working around the clock to deliver the huge demand of what seems to be the busiest Christmas period in the last 25 years, says NZ Post Northland delivery manager Ian Revington. He has been working in the industry for 25 years.
Drivers delivered 355, 664 parcels in October this year, compared to 263,765 parcels last year in October. In November this year, there was a 39.8 per cent increase in the volume - from 288,849 parcels delivered in November 2020 to 405,330 last month.
A Northland courier driver delivers 200-350 parcels a day. Northland NZ Post team leader Deakyn Rickard. Photo / Tania Whyte
Revington said the drivers were doing an "absolutely" tremendous job getting these parcels delivered in a short period of time and under so much time pressure.
"A driver can deliver anywhere between 200 to 350 parcels a day in a 10-hour tight window. Some are more because of bulk deliveries, so you can guess the incredible volume of parcels being delivered.
"We are putting on and have employed more people in the vicinity of 30 to 40 more vehicles out on the road throughout Northland, to manage such high demand."
Northland experienced the third-strongest regional growth in online spending in October 2021 compared with October 2020 after Auckland and Waikato, which were also affected by lockdowns in October.
Northlanders spent nearly 40 per cent of the total on products from department, variety and miscellaneous retail stores. This sector was up 72 per cent compared to October last year.
Revington said online shopping was the number one driver for a huge increase in parcel volumes, particularly this year because of multiple lockdowns and convenience.
"I think there are a lot of people out there, like me, who were not online shoppers but have learnt to do it now, which is fantastic. It is simply very easy and convenient to shop online and get things delivered to your doorstep, especially if you live in rural areas."
Whangārei NZ Post Courier depot received 420 cubic metres of fright a night, which gets delivered the next day across Northland.
"We have also started delivering over the weekends, if need be, to accommodate the biggest weeks leading to Christmas."
Whangārei Delivery North Depot becomes a finalist in the Customer Service Excellence Award. Photo / Tania Whyte
Whangārei Delivery North Depot was a finalist in the customer excellence award, voted by the customers, for the first quarter of the year, Revington said.
"We are really proud of our team. We are tracking well for the second quarter as well.
"There has also been a huge increase in the number of parcels being sent from Northland. We send 100-200 cubic metres of freight a night from the region, much more than we used to before Covid-19.
"We work around the clock and are only closed for a couple of hours during the night."
