Tara Murray
The Australia Post Sunshine West Parcel Delivery Centre has processed nearly 27 million parcels in its first year of operation.
The centre celebrates its first birthday milestone this month, after a year like no other.
With a record number of parcels processed, restrictions and staff having to quarantine, it has been non-stop for the centre.
The 28,500 square metre site is capable of processing more than 100,000 parcels a day and is the biggest in the state.
There are more than 200-plus parcel delivery vans operating out of the site, delivering to an average of 50,000 parcels per day across more than 48 postcodes in Melbourne’s west.
Of the parcels processed in the past year, one million of them have been processed manually.
There are about 1000 team members, many of them Brimbank residents, working at the facility across processing, parcel delivery, van services, transport and support teams.
Centre processing manager Katrina Eishold said he been an incredibly challenging 12 months,
“The last 12 months have been some of the busiest and most challenging for Australia Post – and particularly for our team here at Sunshine West,” she said.
“I couldn’t be prouder of our team and the way they’ve worked together to process record numbers of parcels and deliver for our customers in Melbourne’s west.”
There will be no letting up for staff, with the Christmas period getting under way.
Australia Post business and government executive general manager Gary Starr said preparations for the peak season were already well under way, including recruiting a record more than 4000 Christmas casual team members.
“We’re seeing record parcel volumes with more than 5.9 million households shopping online a month – that’s more than half of all Australian households, and it’s showing no signs of slowing as we head into the online sales season and Christmas,” Mr Starr said.
