The largest parcel facility and delivery centre in the southern hemisphere is set to start operations in October when Australia Post opens its new Redbank facility in Queensland, which
will be able to process up to 700,000 parcels per day at its peak – or over 35,000 parcels an hour.
The new facility is part of Australia Post’s three-year, A$900 million investment in parcel processing nationally and underlines the strong growth of e-commerce in Australia.
Lasting love affair
Australia Post Group Chief Operating Officer Bob Black said the 50,000 square metre site will meet the growing demands of online shopping in Queensland.
“We know Australia’s love affair with online shopping isn’t slowing down. Last year Australians spent A$27.5 billion nationally, an increase of 24% on 2017,” Black said, adding “Queensland’s love
affair with online shopping also continues, and in 2018 it grew by 21% from the previous year - ahead of the national average. Making up 19% of all online shopping across the nation, Queensland
also had three of the top 10 postcodes – Toowoomba, Mackay and Bundaberg – each with strong growth all above 20%."
State-of-the-art facility
As parcel numbers grow, Mr Black said it’s important to invest in new technology to help deliver increasing volumes and help create new and safer workplaces. The facility will use the latest
technology to increase parcel processing capabilities, including robotic arms, automated guided vehicles and an automated parcel picker, the first of its kind in Australia.
NZ Post: courier delivery surpassed traditional mail
In a related development, a new report from NZ Post has indicated that online shopping in New Zealand grew eight times faster than shopping in-store in 2018. Their respective growth rates were
16% and 2%.
The “Full Download 2019 report” showed that 1.8 million New Zealanders chose to shop online last year spending a total of NZ$4.2billion. The large growth in online shopping has mainly come from
people shopping more often, with online shoppers now hitting that ‘buy’ button 22 times each per year. The report also found that spending with New Zealand online stores grew at nearly double the
rate of growth for international online stores. It noted that shoppers feel more satisfied when buying directly from New Zealand websites (88%) and marketplaces (81%), than buying from overseas
based websites (66%) or marketplaces (55%).
NZ Post said that it had undertaken the report “because courier delivery has now surpassed mail as the largest contributor to NZ Post revenue”.
Nol van Fenema
Write a comment