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Couriers are delivering “inedible” meat to customers as they struggle to keep up with a surge in demand, say owners of a small pork business.
As coronavirus restrictions eased last week, and the focus for businesses shifted from “essential” to “safe” economic activity, courier companies saw a sharp increase in demand.
Bryan Dobson, director of marketing for Courier Post operator NZ Post, said the business receives around 300,000 packages a day, volumes generally seen at Christmas.
“The difference here is that we usually have months to plan and prepare for Christmas, for level 3 we only had days.”
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While the increase in online shopping is good news for the economy, it is an expensive headache for Manawatu’s husband and wife, Daniel Todd and Claire Ongley.
His business, Woody’s Free Range Farm, processes around 2,000 kilograms of pork per week through his butcher shop and factory in Levin.
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NZ Post Marketing Director Bryan Dobson says the business receives around 300,000 packages per day.
Before closing, much of that was earmarked for restaurants and coffee shops, but since the hotel industry closed their stores at coronavirus alert level 4, they have become more dependent on online sales.
“We sent 150 packages a day with the Courier Post at the peak of level 4 and we had very few delivery failures, they were doing a great job,” said Todd.
“It was when online shopping opened at level 3 that things started to go wrong.”
Despite paying a premium for an overnight service, late and failed deliveries last week cost Todd and Ongley $ 1500 in rebates to seven customers.
“This morning I received an email every five minutes from people who said they had looked at the tracking and the package we sent on Wednesday [May 6] it won’t be delivered until May 11, obviously it won’t be edible by then, “Todd said.
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Claire Ongley and Daniel Todd own the free farm pork business Woody’s Free Range Farm. They say their meat will be wasted as mails struggle with demand.
“We are losing money and customers, but the worst is the terrible food waste and the wasted life of animals.”
Dobson said NZ Post was doing everything possible to meet the additional demand, including bringing in additional vehicles and workers.
Eleven of its sites across the country are processing packages around the clock, and mail sorting sites are being used to sort packages.
Perishable products have priority, but despite the additional steps to move parcels faster, there are still delays, he said.
“We understand that this is of little comfort to companies that currently operate under difficult circumstances and that their delays affect their perishable product.”
“We wish to sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this causes.”
However, even during normal business hours, the Courier Post could not guarantee overnight delivery.
“When it comes to physical transportation of goods, there are many things beyond our control: weather, traffic outages, traffic congestion, flight delays, which can affect delivery.”
“It is standard practice in our industry not to guarantee overnight delivery.
“This means that customers who choose to send perishables through our network do so at their own risk.”
Under its terms of service for mail, NZ Post is not responsible for perishable goods or accepts claims for compensation for perishable goods.
Although understanding of post pressure is low, Todd said the Courier Post should prioritize the perishables of companies with which they are contracted and who have been consistently using their services.
“I have no complaints about what they are doing to try to get all these deliveries out, but they don’t have a process to deal with perishables.”
“Our large silver boxes have a bright orange ‘perishable’ sticker, but there is no system to separate them from The Warehouse or Kmart packages,” he said.
“They need to deal with them separately or at least with priority.”
Todd said courier companies need to handle the situation and stop accepting money from customers for packages they know won’t be delivered on time.
“A lot of people are fighting and of course we are very lucky in New Zealand that Covid-19 is under control.
“However, this is something that can be addressed and will save many SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises] to take a big hit. “
