EAST Orange Post Office owner Conrad Silvester says his staff have been run off their feet as people rush to meet the Christmas delivery deadline.
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Mr Silvester said 90 per cent of the deliveries at this time of year were parcels.
“Most of the parcels are Christmas presents or business gifts,” he said.
Mr Silvester said there had been a 10 per cent increase in the number of parcels his business had processed this year compared with last year.
He said online shopping continued to be popular with Orange shoppers all year around but particularly at Christmas.
“We’ve been really busy on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and then it tailed off on Thursday and then Friday was busy again,” he said.
“Being private industry we like to be busy and make a profit and we love the internet [shopping].”
Mr Silvester said while some items such as books and electronics were big internet sellers, consumers were often not as keen to buy clothes or shoes on line.
Australia Post spokeswoman Michelle Skehan said the final weeks before Christmas were the organisation’s busiest time of the year.
“We’re working around the clock and processing millions of parcels each week,” she said.
“We’ve increased resources in our major facilities by around 20 per cent, we have more vehicles on the road than any other transport company in Australia, and we’ve added significant new parcel processing capability and capacity in our two largest facilities in Sydney and Melbourne.”
Ms Skehan said Australia Post was delivering on weekends with most post offices operating extended hours including Saturdays.
tracey.prisk@fairfaxmedia.com.au