Australia Post Is Pausing Parcel Pick-Up From Online Retailers Due To Christmas-Level Backlog

Australia Post will be pausing the delivery of all new orders in NSW, Victoria and the ACT until it sorts out an increasing backlog of parcels.

There are 500 staff across the country who have been forced into isolation due to the coronavirus, which means loads of orders have been piling up.

The company said this pause will affect Parcel Post collections from online retailers from 7am on Saturday to 7am on Tuesday.

It said in a statement: "Australia Post currently has 500 people in necessary self-isolation, placing increased pressure on our network, while we also manage flight restrictions, temporary facility closures and parcel volumes as high as our Christmas peak period.

"This temporary measure will allow us to responsibly clear record parcel volumes in parts of our network impacted by Covid-19."

This would explain why loads of people aren't getting their packages delivered and instead are being forced to go into Post Offices to collect their items.

They've admitted that lockdowns in several states around Australia have meant there has been a large increase on orders.

There's no doubt people are ramping up their orders to stave off the boredom and get on top of at-home projects.

In fact, August set a record for the amount of mail processed.

AusPost executive general manager Gary Starr told ABC Radio Melbourne: "It's been quite an unprecedented period for Australia Post.

"While the network is working pretty well, we're finding that we have 500 people a day roughly in isolation, less flights, zoning and split shifts in our facilities to make sure we keep our people safe - and of course closures from time to time when a facility does have a COVID case."

He said anyone who ordered their Father's Day present well in advance has a 'good chance' that it will arrive in time, which doesn't sound all that promising.

Sadly, it doesn't look like Australia Post is prepared to organise any sort of compensation for the issue.

"We're not looking at compensation given that we'll continue to process parcels and deliver them, and we'll start picking up again from Tuesday," Gary Starr said.

"[Businesses] will be able to take orders from the customers and prepare [for the week ahead].

"We're not stopping the delivery - just the collection for ecommerce customers."

Featured Image Credit: Australia Post/Instagram

Topics: Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie