AusPost's drastic Christmas move after lockdown delays
Australia Post has announced it will bring on thousands of new recruits across the country to help out with what is expected to be the busiest Christmas ever as it struggles to cope with ongoing lockdown demand.
On Monday, Australia Post announced there are 1600 permanent and fixed term jobs across Australia that need filling.
The 1600 jobs is in addition to the some 3300 Christmas casual roles which Australia Post hopes to fill, while it strengthens the processing and delivering capacity to meet the demand with a "record" surge in online shopping amid lockdown.
There are vacancies in every Australian state and territory.
"Australia Post is on the lookout for people to join their teams across parcel and mail processing, van and truck drivers, motorcycle and EDV posties, forklift operators, and in customer service roles," a media release said.
While Christmas is still months away, Australia Post is already delivering more than two million parcels a day.
Executive General Manager People and Culture Sue Davies said right now, "every day feels like Christmas at Australia Post".
“We’re proud of the outstanding efforts of our people working hard across the country who keeping delivering and supporting communities through challenging circumstances, and we're so pleased to be able to welcome more into this fantastic Australia Post team,” she said.
Earlier in September, Australia Post announced it will build a new facility in Perth, with "state-of-the-art" automated sortation, with the capacity to process 23,000 parcels per hour.
The facility will be operational by Christmas 2022 and is part of Australia Post's commitment to meet the growing eCommerce demand.
"Western Australia’s online shopping grew 22.6 per cent in the 12 months to 31 August 2021 with close to one million WA households shopping online," Australia Post Acting Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Rodney Boys said.
In its July eCommerce report, Australia Post revealed 5.6 million households purchased something online that month.
The report indicated lockdowns were driving the surge in demand.
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