AUSTRALIA Post hired vans and sheds and sent executives to deliver mail during the Christmas rush when one million extra parcels were put through the system.
The organisation, which still posted a $332.3million profit before tax last financial year, is investing $20 million into retraining its workforce to cope better with the increase in parcel deliveries generated by online shopping.
Australia Post is now a two-speed business as the growing number of parcel deliveries eclipse the organisation's more traditional job of distributing letters across the nation.
But it has become a challenge for Australia Post to juggle resources when delivering letters to a greater geographical area, according to the postal service's external affairs general manager Alex Twomey.
At the same time millions of extra packages are being put through the system each year.
There was a dramatic increase in December alone with posties having to contend with a million packages beyond the normal number for an already traditionally busy time of year.
''There's always a big surge at Christmas but now the surge is growing,'' Mr Twomey said.
He said out of the millions of extra packages received each year, 70 per cent were related to online shopping.
While letters received drops by up to 5 per cent a year, parcel deliveries were expected to increase 12.5 per cent annually for the next five years.
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