Parcel delivery service CouriersPlease is forecasting a parcel boom before Christmas after delivering 5.6 million parcels over the first eight weeks of Sydney’s lockdown.

As a result, the franchisor expects another boost at the end of the year, predicting delivery of an extra 2.4 million more parcels than the company delivered last December. That is a further 30 per cent growth in the December quarter compared with the same period last year.

Phil Reid, chief operations officer at CouriersPlease, says “We’ve has continued to experience a surge in parcel volumes and the current lockdowns have seen volumes soar to the levels we see during peak periods.

“Since last year’s boom, we expanded the business rapidly, doubling our franchisee network and hiring hundreds more delivery drivers. However, volumes continue to soar to record levels, and a second parcel boom this November and December is inevitable.

“We are preparing for a more than 30 per cent increase in volumes during this period and have already started recruiting more warehouse staff and delivery drivers where possible.”

Between March and May 2020, CouriersPlease (CP) experienced an 80 per cent spike in parcel volumes on the previous year. After lockdowns ended and restrictions began to ease, parcel volumes stabilised to a level that was still 53 per cent higher than in 2019.

October to December is peak period for the logistics industry, given the popularity of major shopping events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as well as Christmas shopping.

In 2019 parcel volumes at CP grew to more than 4.6 million, which was a rise of just 1 per cent (52,000 parcels) on the 2019 September quarter.

During last year’s December quarter, however, CP handled more than 8 million parcels. While this was a 4 per cent increase in volumes (340,000 parcels) on the 2020 September quarter, it amounted to a significant 71 per cent growth on the 2019 December quarter.