Couriers and postal staff are flat out as people go online to shop
AN POST and other courier services in Co Wexford are experiencing booming December-like levels of activity as shoppers confined to their homes seek retail therapy by going all in to spend, spend, spend on everything from play equipment to garden seed and paint.
At the New Ross An Post depot, staff are sorting and post men and women are delivering over 1,000 parcels a day. This is replicated at post office depots across the county, with multiples going out from depots in bigger towns like Wexford and Gorey.
Across the county every week day, tens of thousands of packages are being delivered to Wexford homes from several courier companies including Fastway, Nightline, DHL and DPD.
At the New Ross depot, social distancing is in place, meaning post office workers work on shifts, sitting with an empty work station in between one another.
The depot delivers to south Kilkenny and south of Ballinaboola, Ballywilliam and across south west Wexford. Twenty-seven staff work from the premises, with six sorting parcels and letters in the morning from 6.15 a.m. to 8.15 a.m. On Tuesday alone, 20,000 letters and around 1,000 parcels were delivered from the depot.
Manager Eddie Cullen said: ‘ Any time there are holidays and there are people at home for extended periods, there is a spike.’
He said that Amazon products are by far the most popular in the New Ross district. Wish and Alibaba normally account for a lot of parcel traffic but due to the embargo on Chinese goods this supply line has stopped, leading to a backlog.
H&M goods from the UK are very popular, as are Brown Thomas and Smyths toys, particularly around Christmas time.
The main online distribution centre for Glanbia is in New Ross so the local depot is busy delivering bags of nuts and other agri products.
Over recent years, there has been a 50 per cent increase in parcel deliveries from New Ross, which has been replicated across the county.
Public Affairs manager at An Post Angus Laverty said: ‘ The level of parcel traffic trebles in the weeks leading up to Christmas; that is the kind of increase you are talking about since the start of the lockdown. Particularly, you’re talking about parcels from Amazon, everything from electrical items to home hair clippers and dog food.’
Post men and women are working longer days delivering the packages as a result.
One said: ‘ The online shopping is like Black Friday and Christmas rolled into one. I don’t know what they are buying. Obviously they can’t go out but it’s unbelievable for this time of year. People have less expenses: travel, eating out, etc. I am going to houses I have never gone to before as you’d know the pattern and who is buying online. In some houses they used to buy once a month and now it’s once a week.
‘I have never seen anything like this for this time of the year. A lot of businesses are closed down but we are busy delivering their products. You’d be hard pressed to fit all of the parcels in the van!’
Postmen and women across the county thought when the restrictions were announced by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on March 27 that warehouses would shut down, but all staff were retained.
‘It’s busier and busier it’s getting. This is crazy; it’s just unprecedented as there were no country runs on Good Friday and Monday so this coming week will be mad.’