Pandemic Freight - September 2021

[Birkin7]

I have used Sendle twice in the past few weeks from Croydon Vic to Brisbane. The first 2kg box took 5 days including the weekend to get to my door. The second 2kg box took less than 48 hours to get to my door from the time the order was placed. Both times with Couriers please which is one of Sendle's freight partners.
Maybe I have been lucky as I am not complaining about 5 days let alone less than 2.
Maurice

[AngryBeans]

Good news, I received my Genecafe roast chamber today! Hooray. Thanks CS. AusPost needs to get their act together they’re supposed to be our national postage carrier.

[GoneRidingAgain]

I can also confirm that AusPost seem to have found the parcels from Aug30 - Coffee has arrived - Yeah

[Andy]

Post in some areas is still somewhat constipated but they are constantly delivering so good to see some are finally getting to where they should have been a week or more ago.

[Whorl]

Really feel for our (un)caffeinated pandemic brethren, but I thought it worth adding a Brisbane experience to this.

Ordered last Wednesday afternoon, packaged and collected by Aramex within 90 minutes. Arrived on my doorstep in Brisbane just after 9am this morning.

A big thank you to Andy, and a sincere hope that everyone’s orders will arrive in time also.

[Andy]

Good stuff.
It's worth mentioning that distance from the Snobbery seems to have little to do with lag in delivery. Slow deliveries are area specific regardless of how far away they are. Orders 2000km away are faster than some 75km away. The joys of freight!

[shauno]

My green beans arrived today, only 15 (calendar) days & 2 hours for Aramex to get from Geelong to Sydney 😬 Next time I’m going to order when I’ve still got a full bag left!

[Whorl]

Always a good idea to plan ahead, especially in times of uncertainty!

[sfcoy]

It looks like "Australia Post - Express Post" has resumed regular operations.

My coffee shipment from the Snobbery sent yesterday arrived in the Sydney Northern Beaches this afternoon.

[Andy]

Plenty of weird freight examples.

Shipped the 16th August (express) and still bouncing around
https://auspost.com.au/mypost/track/...50043919030991

Shipped the 26th August (express) and arrived in 2 days
https://auspost.com.au/mypost/track/...50043919100991

...to the same address!

That makes it look like instead of "first in first out" their mountain of parcels is so big that they are delivering "last in first out" and the initial parcel is buried deep in the pile somewhere.

It's really hard to make sense of freight movement but luckily nothing is being lost, it all gets delivered eventually.

The order sent on the 16th August arrived today, 17th September.... EXPRESS!

[masonb88]

You can expect this to continue or get worse until probably January.
International freight markets are highly disrupted and domestic e-commerce / Parcel delivery volumes are through the roof. Lots of bottlenecks and backlogs forming

But, order ahead and most providers have pretty reasonable processes in place to ensure the majority of shipments move well.

[Andy]

I can't imagine the Christmas volume getting dumped on a network that's not coping... hopefully they can work through the existing backlog promptly!

[fatboy_1999]

Also got a delay with Aramex. Dispatched last Monday 13th, still comes up as 'In transit to Dandenong'.
I'm in no particular rush, just reporting in.

[Andy]

"like" button doesn't seem appropriate because I don't like freight taking this long. Freight isn't getting lost but lots of it is moving slow out of depots. I expect this one will be in Dandenong (long ago) but not scanned yet.

[Gabster]

Similar slow experience with Aramex. My parcel was picked up from Geelong on 8th September and made it to their Sydney Depot on 15th September but since then, a full week later, all I have heard was crickets. As long as they haven't lost it, annoying but not the end of the world considering everything else that's going on. 🙂

[pache]

I'm apparently having some sort of courier race from CS to the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.

I've got an RTF beans shipment that was dropped off at 2:44pm last Friday being sent via AusPost Express Post, and that hasn't even left North Geelong yet. Can't complain about it until it's 4 or 5 days past its expected delivery date (tuesday) depending on which part of the auspost website you go by. I had a similar experience pre-pandemic & it showed up within 18 hours of being complained about, with a forklift wheelmark over the corner of the parcel.

And I ordered some fresh roasted beans in Wednesday's roast via Aramex, which were picked up by them at 3:45pm Wed and are currently beating AusPost cos they're at least in transit to Melbourne (as of 4:46pm Wed).

I figure any excess can go to the neighbours, assuming either parcel ever makes it out of the courier companies' clutches. I'd actually be quite enjoying this if I wasn't reduced to drinking tea (big fan of the CS earl grey, but there are limits).

[pache]

AusPost from last friday went from "North Geelong Depot, Fri 17 Sep, 2.44pm" to "On Board for Delivery Wantirna South, Fri 24 Sep, 6.38am" via teleportation (no updates in between), then was dropped off around midday with no email notification. Aramex ETA has gone from today (24th) to "Estimated between 24-29th".. if they actually achieve that they'll be faster than Express post.

[pache]

I'm near Box Hill, and the Aramex bloke dropped his parcel off today at ~4pm. So Aramex is thrashing Australia Post Express to the middle-distance eastern suburbs of Melbourne (72 business hours + weekend versus 120 hours + weekend). Down side is that "a safe place" is literally "dropped inside the property, visibly leaning against the wire front gate"... had the same issue with FastWay so probably still the same guy.

[fatboy_1999]

Progress of sorts.
At least they are now admitting it made it to the Dandenong depot.
Will be out for delivery in the next 24 hours, says the update from 53 hours ago

[Rockford]

Mine was picked up on the 17th and the Expected date is 7th October. Mel - Syd. Freight at the moment is diabolical. But like someone else said a lot of the courier companies, dhl, couriers please seem to be coping pretty well. I'm getting stuff from the UK and Europe inside 7 days in some cases via DHL.

[pache]

Having the same experience. AusPost are flooded, but TNT - who are on the receiving end of strikes & should be having issues - got something to me from South Korea -> Melbourne inside 6 days (4 business days).

[Rockford]

Just got another update from them, it will be another 7-10 days before it is delivered. So that will be a month to get it from Victoria to Sydney.

[SJG351]

YES, we are working, open, packing and shipping under covid safe rules during all lock downs as are our freight carriers.

Fresh coffee IS definitely an essential service!

Welcome to Spring. The weather is getting nicer, we get to see a little sun between the rain and wind and freight is pretty idle in some areas.

Highlights (actually lowlights)

• Sydney Fastway has been lagging for the last 3 weeks and has improved a little but still very slow.
• Express Post was 1-3 days most of the country but is getting slower every day.
• eParcel was sort of normal but is starting to slowdown at a rapid rate.

Post appear to be shoveling off sorting to odd areas so tracking is getting weird with parcels sitting idle far a day, back tracking, and heading out again.

It's really hard to get honest and reliable answers but it does seem that having the most populous states in COVID lock-down along with Fathers Day has caused the entire freight network to grind to a screaming dribble. I'm guessing some freight depots were closed for cleaning and caused a lot of backlog but it's just a guess and I'm assuming that the fright piles are sky high too.

Some areas of Australia are still fairly good. Freight to SA, WA and regional VIC seems close to normal this week after it moves through the initial sorting lag on this side of the country. QLD is a little laggy but nothing is as bad as the greater Sydney region which is is even worse West and South West of Sydney.

Please understand that the freight companies all want to deliver your order, they really don't want to go to work each day and look at a mountain of boxes or see 400 people on hold waiting to scream abuse at their help desk.

Freight is a moving target, bottlenecks can happen at depots, border crossings, sorting facilities (with additional social distancing requirements) and local areas regardless of who is delivering it. Drivers and depot staff in two week quarantine will add to the network woes as will trying to find someone else to learn a drivers route and deliver items.

If you order and we receive payment before lunchtime we'll always ship same day.

Hopefully your items get to you as fast as possible in this current and unusual environment.

Hopeless is how i would describe Australia Post, this is 10 days and counting to deliver what is an hours trip by car. I have vitamins stuck with them for 26 days now and have needed to involve the ombudsman