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The 260 overseas packages hosted by NZ Post before the Christmas deadline are no longer stuck in New Zealand and can reach their destination before the tree falls.
Last week, NZ Post admitted that there were still hundreds of gifts at the NZ Post International Mail Center, even though customers had arranged for them to be shipped abroad on time.
Rachel Holland paid $ 64 to send a Christmas package by international courier to Brisbane on November 7, a month before the deadline.
The package finally arrived in Brisbane on December 29, instead of the advertised three to 10 days, having apparently been in limbo at NZ Post’s Auckland international mail center since December 10.
READ MORE:
* NZ Post admits that about 260 gifts ‘shipped’ on time will not arrive abroad by Christmas
* Gifts spend weeks stuck in transit: ‘I’d have to be in Santa’s sleigh to get there’
* NZ Post advances Christmas delivery dates due to expected Covid-19 delays
Sheri Hooley / unsplash
The 260 overseas packages hosted by NZ Post before the Christmas deadline are no longer stuck in New Zealand.
But he still hadn’t handed it over to his parents the next day.
“I fully understand the effects Covid is having on freight and mail,” Holland said.
“My problem is that NZ Post is a national organization specialized in the movement and delivery of goods; they manage the logistics and must be aware at all times of the flow of articles in their charge ”.
He said that NZ Post should have provided more frequent updates on international mail services and better communicate with customers.
Another customer, Del Pouwels, paid $ 255 for an international courier for a package to Ireland on December 2, before the deadline. The package had been ‘in transit with the airline’ eight times, but 27 days later it had not arrived.
NZ Post International Solutions General Manager Murray Silcock apologized for the 260 packages they left behind and said they had since been shipped overseas. They were bypassed when other emails came to the front, and they were not discovered until the NZ Post reviewed their process.
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Rachel Holland paid $ 64 to send a gift to Brisbane in early November. Recently arrived.
“We really try as hard as we can, we work very hard to get the products where they are supposed to go and we usually do a good job.
“Obviously this time with the process error being not great, that’s not what we plan to do, and we can only apologize to those people who have been affected.”
Potentially, there could be 50 to 100 more packages trapped in other areas, he said.
“I wouldn’t say there are many more than we have identified, but it is at that time of year that a packet could have been trapped somewhere on someone’s network.”
As of Tuesday, the oldest overseas packages on NZ Post were those shipped on December 23.
Fewer aircraft in and out of New Zealand thanks to the coronavirus pandemic was creating headaches for NZ Post, at a time when it was dealing with high volumes of packages.
NZ Post has struggled with logistical problems since February, when China was hit by the Covid-19 outbreak. Things got more hectic in New Zealand’s first blockade before the situation improved, but other countries were still grappling with blockades.
“It’s devilish,” Silcock said.
NZ Post knew the holiday season would be tough and made its deadlines earlier than usual.
“I think in most of our literature we were pretty clear that we can’t guarantee anything, but if you send it in before those deadlines … we were pretty sure it would be delivered.”
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NZ Post has shipped all packages posted before December 23, says Murray Silcock.
In the UK, Royal Mail normally dispatched items in 24 to 48 hours across the border, so there were no significant delays there, Silcock said.
He was sure that Christmas gifts sent before the deadline would have generally reached their destination. Customers had taken the advice to ship early, he said.
“I think overall we did very well, with the exception of that bug that had some of those packages caught. And most of all, we have found all kinds of creative ways to move things during this time.
“Normally before Covid, we had a contract with Air NZ and one with Cathay Pacific, now we will take volume capacity wherever we can find it, and route it in various ways.
“We had a contingency that we didn’t need to use and it would have gone to China and used its Belt and Road.
“I think all the logistics specialists around the world have gotten quite creative about how to move things today.”
If NZ Post had known such high volumes of packages would be shipped overseas, it would have chartered flights before it did.
“Normally we are much more planned in our approach, but Covid has made it incredibly difficult to plan: the volumes are much more different than you would expect and the capacity of the airlines is very difficult to achieve.
A maritime service is likely to be added to the mix next Christmas, which would be cheaper and produce fewer emissions, but would take longer. A test run was planned for February or March.
