COVID19 - August 2020 Update

[lancruiser]

According to this article, parcels are being sent interstate for sorting. Still doesn't make sense to me.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/v...21-p55o4d.html

[YeastNCaffeine]

According to this article, parcels are being sent interstate for sorting. Still doesn't make sense to me.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/v...21-p55o4d.html

No - especially not in terms of total freight/fuel costs and environmental considerations. Also additional handling/labour costs, total delivery time.... madness... I'd almost argue they should outsource it to another courier if they can't fulfil their obligations themselves.

[saeco_user]

Unlikely other courier services have the capacity to take on the uptick in volume being experienced by Aus Post

[Andy]

The Age
Tom Cowie - August 22, 2020 — 11.59pm


If you've tracked your online purchases through Australia Post recently, you may have noticed your package making a curious and faraway stopover.

Perhaps it was the case of wine that went the long way from Adelaide to Geelong. Or the doorbell that was diverted between Oakleigh and Preston. Or the bag of coffee beans bound for Braeside after a detour from Port Melbourne. All went through Sydney before reaching their final destination.

An unprecedented level of demand for online deliveries has resulted in parcels being sent from Melbourne for sorting interstate, as stage four COVID-19 restrictions reduce the number of staff allowed to work.

In some cases, this has led to the unusual situation of parcels travelling thousands of extra kilometres in Sydney before being sent straight back again to Melbourne to be delivered by a postie.

"The demand is just massive at the moment," said Gary Starr, Australia Post's executive general manager for business, government and international.

"A CEO from a major retailer recently said to me that we're going to see what it's like having a purely online shopping environment in Melbourne."

Online shopping has exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic, with Australia Post experiencing a 157 per cent growth in Victoria in the first week of August compared to last year.

This came after a very busy July, when more than a third of all online shopping purchases around the country were made in Victoria.

Home and garden, food and liquor, and health and beauty are the leading categories for purchases by shoppers looking for things to buy while in lockdown.

Mr Starr said that the surge in demand was being felt in Australia Post's metropolitan Melbourne distribution centres, where staff numbers have been cut by 10 per cent as part of the state government's measures to combat the virus.

To manage the influx of parcels with fewer people, Australia Post is running split shifts around the clock while conducting regular deep cleans.

In recent weeks the volume of mail has become so high that parcels have been sent to the Sydney processing facility on trucks and planes for sorting.

Mr Starr said the Sydney centre had processed two million packages last weekend, up 30 per cent on the usual numbers.

"A big chunk of that would be Victorian," he said.

"We'll send them up overnight, process them and get them back ... so customers may see a parcel take a different route to normal."

Mr Starr said it would be ideal to process packages locally, rather than send them interstate, because it was the cheapest and most timely "but we are in unusual times".

The measure is just one of many taken by the postal service to try and keep up with the boom in online shopping during the pandemic. Other steps include seven-day delivery, pop-up sorting facilities and hiring 600 new staff.

"To be honest we're battle hardened, we've learned how to work in this environment more effectively," said Mr Starr.

"We're doing relatively well, we clearly want to be in a position where every parcel arrives on time."

I call Bullsh!t. Moronic Post is doing this for dollars/margin. Yes they have 2.5 times the parcels and restrictions on how many people can work together but the core capital city facilities that do the sorting are nearly 100% automated and have very few staff on the floor which are not working beside each other.

Fair enough if Melbourne auto sort is overloaded, ship it to Sydney for additional sorting but only non-Victorian freight.

We deliver a SnobsVan full of orders every night to the mail centre (people used to sort mail here, now mostly the just move it). We fill cages and they are forked inside, to go on a truck which goes to Melbourne.

It would be simple for us to sort it as we unload:

• One cage for Victoria
• One cage for the rest of Australia.
• FREE initial sorting wages for Post
• Less load on Sydney = faster
• Less freight miles
• Easier sorting for Melbourne = faster
• Faster deliveries for our customers all over Australia!

I can't see a reason that all post offices couldn't pre-sort "VIC and the Rest" which would make it faster to sort a second time into localised areas.

I'm sick of the big anonymous companies like post shrugging their shoulders and telling us there is a virus.

[WANTOK]

I live in the Atherton tablelands (Cairns Hinterland) and just last week ordered up 2.5 kg of green beans - the Australia Post satchel took 48 hours to be delivered ex Melbourne to my regional mail box - no problems here !

[Andy]

WANTOK -- Your order was Express Post, a different beast as it's air freight.
The problem mentioned here is eParcel (ground freight) and you would still be waiting for your order while they toured it around the country.

eParcel - randomly sucks.
Express Post is mostly working well with a day or two lag.
Fastway is mostly working well with a day or two lag.

[johnthepom0]

Hi Andy I did receive delivery on Sunday which I assumed was the Fastway shipment, but it was in fact the AusPost one - thanks.
No idea where Fastway delivery is/was, hopefully you know ? Isn't life fun at present!

[Andy]

See: BeanBay "My Previous Orders"
It always shows the tracking and invoice details.

I'm guessing the other might appear tomorrow... even though it should have been 2 days ago.

[Andy]

Just received from the eGM of Post.

Important update on our operations

Dear (insert important customer name here),

Over the last three weeks, Australia Post has experienced a significant increase in demand as Victorians have increased their online buying due to stage 4 lockdowns. So much so, that our parcel volumes in Victoria for August are up approximately 150% year-on-year compared to the national average of 90%.

At the same time, our business has been required to make additional adjustments in our processing and deliveries workforce to comply with the State Government's COVID safe restrictions.

From the very start of the pandemic, we have been clear that our strategy has been to protect our people, serve our customers and safeguard the business.

Safety of our people is not-negotiable and the current situation in Victoria, with massive volumes and severe congestion in our network, has us at a point of concern for the safety of our workforce.

To make sure we can still safely deliver for your customers, the following changes are immediately necessary:

No Weekend Collections in Victoria
There will be no collections in Victoria this weekend – the last pickup for the week will be Friday 28 August 2020 by 8pm and the next collection will be Monday 31 August 2020 commencing from 5am.

Victoria destined Parcels
With the massive demand and workforce capacity constraints, we foresee an additional 3 day delay for deliveries in Victoria. This is both within and into Victoria.

This means, any lodgements made in other States destined for Victoria may be held in those States for up to 3 business days to allow Victoria to work through the present demand.

Father's Day
For deliveries across Australia, we recommend at least the following lodgement dates for delivery before Father's Day on Sunday 6 September 2020:

• Parcel Post and letters – Friday 28 August 2020
• Express Post parcels – Monday 31 August 2020

For items lodged after these dates, whilst we will try our best, we do not expect to be able to meet delivery for Father's Day.

We will keep you updated regularly over the next few weeks and anticipate reviewing the situation in line with the easing of level 4 restrictions.

We appreciate the implications of these decisions and want to assure you we are doing our very best within these extremely challenging times.

I'm sure you can appreciate we cannot compromise the safety of our people and I appreciate your ongoing support as we work through this together.

Stay safe,

Gary Starr
Executive General Manager,
Business, Government and International

It appears to me they have shrugged and given up.

• No weekend collections doesn't clear the backlog, just makes Monday worse but saves overtime rates.
• No mention of VIC to other places so I assume the rest of the country is fine.
• No mention of discount for a lesser service.

Might be worth selecting Fastway at the checkout or Express Post if you really have to use post.
I'd be giving eParcel a wide berth till they get a handle on it.

[Ted2013]

Well no problems with Austpost to Canberra. Made my first green bean purchase from Andy on Thursday last week and it arrived on Tuesday. Hopefully my new Hottop I bought from a fellow CSer will arrive in the next day or so and I will start my roasting adventure.

I must say I was very impressed with the service Andy provides - excellent communications all the way along. Sadly I cannot say the same about all other Commercial online sellers including one particular tool shop whose name I will not mention other than to say it has nothing to do with coffee.

[johnthepom0]

Andy - Fastway delivered today! thanks will pm you

[shauno]

Bugger just noticed this after placing an order! I’ll email you Andy & happy to go with Fastway (same price anyway!)

[Andy]

That's why we link this post at the top of every page in BeanBay

"forearmed is forewarned"

[fatboy_1999]

Although I don't see the link to this post on the top of the forum at present. Still see it when in Beanbay along with Fresh Roast Days and OSKO advice, but not on Forum pages.

Ah - I see it's only meant to be in Beanbay!

[pache]

An anecdote, not data...

I had my most recent beans express posted Monday 24th Aug -> eastern suburbs of Melbourne, arriving Thursday 27th just after 5pm. About what I expected in the circumstances.

However I also had some vitamins from Chemist Warehouse sent via regular Parcel Post on Monday... and they also arrived on Thursday with the beans.

For comparison, the week before I'd had some bottled drinks sent via regular parcel post and they took 10 days to get from eastern Melbourne -> eastern Melbourne.

So I'm not sure how they figure the preferential sorting/routing, but it does seem like there's at least some going on. Not sure if a suburban pharmacy would get the same priority as Chemist Warehouse, and I have a feeling they won't fast deliver the masks I ordered from a not-normally-medical business in NSW.

I'd swap to Fastway but whoever drives for them in my area has a bad habit of just leaving the parcel at the front gate in the rain rather than bothering to walk 5 metres up to the porch, and slow is still better than soaked/nicked.

Thanks for keeping up the bean supply Andy & co. - it's been a bright spot through all this.

[fatboy_1999]

My turn for a delay.
Ordered on 2/9.
Fastway 'tracking' says In Transit since 3/9.
Not desperate, but first time I've ever had a real delay.

[Andy]

Ordered near 9:30pm on the 2nd... good luck getting a courier at that time of day

Still too slow for a 100km trip. Melbourne is nuts at the moment with all the freight companies although oddly some items move through in a day or two and others are taking a week. I can only guess the "pile" at some depots is bigger than others.

I do know Fathers Day caused a huge volume and backlog but they should be getting through it by now.

Hopefully it comes out of the freight black hole soon.

[fatboy_1999]

Arrived today!

[Andy]

A week instead of 2 days...
well 5 business days instead of 2 business days is the way they count the delivery lag so 3 days late.

[level3ninja]

A friend of mine has relatives in Melbourne. They were told by the postie that express post parcels are taking 3 weeks.