NZ Post prepares for increase in online shopping

NZ Post prepares for increase in online shopping, some delays expected

NZ Post is continuing to provide delivery services in Alert Level 4 in Auckland and Northland and Alert Level 3 in areas south of Auckland.

“As those areas south of Auckland move into Alert Level 3 and more items are available to be bought online, NZ Post is expecting an increase in parcels to be delivered, and there are likely to be some delays across the country,” NZ Post Chief Customer Officer Bryan Dobson says.

“We will be updating our website regularly and encourage customers to check there for updates on delivery times.

“NZ Post is gearing up to meet the increase in parcels and to reduce the impact of any delays. We’ve re-designed our Auckland network since last Lockdown to ease potential areas of congestion, set up temporary processing sites and operating extended processing hours,” Bryan says.

“We have brought on as many additional people as we can and our teams are working hard to deliver for Kiwis.

“Our people have been working very hard throughout Level 4, continuing to provide an essential service to connect and support Kiwis during this Lockdown. We ask Kiwis to please be patient and understanding as we do our best to deliver your items to you as soon as possible during Level 3.

“We are asking for kindness, compassion and patience. Your item will get to you, it may just take a few more days than it would at normal times. While you may be excited to receive your item from us, we ask everyone to please strictly respect the two-metre rule for our people, and to not approach couriers and posties as they deliver your items,” Bryan says.

“To help manage the increased flow of parcels into our network we are also working with online retailers to manage the parcels we receive to deliver to New Zealanders. We will need to limit items accepted into our network in line with what we can reasonably deliver so we don't receive these parcels all at once.

“This may mean some parcels are delayed before they reach the NZ Post network. This will help to avoid the surge of parcels we received last year when we moved into Level 3 after an extended period-of-time in Level 4. This created a large backlog of parcels that really hampered our network and caused additional delays.”

The best place to find out about delays is on the NZ Post website, where customers can also find FAQs about how NZ Post is operating at the different alert levels.

© Scoop Media