Inbound and internal An Post Delays

11-12-2020 4:03pm

TheBarnacle wrote: »

I'm in the same position. Ordered from UK and package in North Dublin depot since Dec 2nd. I was starting to worry but glad to know it's not an issue with my package specifically.

That depot in particular seems to be struggling based on my experience. Most of my parcels have had a one day delay. Except two going through Dublin North which have been sitting there for over a week.

Xenji · 11-12-2020 4:18pm

recyclebin wrote: »

To counter the Amazon stories, I've three or four Amazon deliveries showing as delivered on the tracker but no sign of them. They were supposed to be going to the parcel lockers in Castlebar.

Your best to send them to the Antrim PM address if your using Amazon, I use that locker multiple times a week and will have it within 3 days from dispatch in the locker

andrewfaulk · 11-12-2020 5:43pm

The Continental Op wrote: »

It was an international postal agreement. I don't blame China for taking advantage of it. I do blame An Post management for throwing their toys out of the pram and not sorting it. They gained nothing as it all had to be delivered in the end.

It's hardly An post throwing their toys out of the pram, it's more a case of them looking at the situation and asking "why would we work for basically nothing when there is all this better paying business sitting there needing to be done"..

An it's not just An Post, one of the Donald's pet projects was tearing up the postal agreement so USPS stopped getting stiffed by the deal.. China Post was paying less to deliver a package(and customs Clearance) than domestic US customers were paying for the same service.. It was basically china dumping in a different format at the expense of western Post offices

Darc19 · 11-12-2020 6:51pm

whiterebel wrote: »

Similarly, just because your company is getting post/parcels through doesn't mean everyone's is. Vast majority on here seem to show that once Amazon arrives it will be a max of 3 days. Domestic seems to be taking far longer in a lot of cases.

We send about 1,000 parcels a week. We get daily csv reports. 90% are delivered within 3 days, almost all within 5 days and a few seem to take ages for no particular reason.

Darc19 · 11-12-2020 6:55pm

The Continental Op wrote: »

Well those of us that have bought stuff from Amazon and who have bought stuff from other UK suppliers that deliver with An Post would totally disagree with you. Amazon stuff has been delivered in two days or less once its got to Dublin other companies stuff has just sat in Dublin.

You are also talking rubbish about "your delivery has been sorted" as my car parts from Micksgarage sat in Park West for nearly a week after they reached that point in the system.

Amazon is domestic parcels.

You have two scans.

"we have your delivery in Parkwest (or Merrywell)"
And
"your delivery has been sorted"

The second one is sent after it has finished being sorted and in the relevant cage for sending out to a local dsu. It can sit in a local dsu for a couple of days and gets scanned when put on the delivery route for that day.

The Continental Op · 11-12-2020 7:00pm

Darc19 wrote: »

Amazon is domestic parcels.

You have two scans.

"we have your delivery in Parkwest (or Merrywell)"
And
"your delivery has been sorted"

The second one is sent after it has finished being sorted and in the relevant cage for sending out to a local dsu. It can sit in a local dsu for a couple of days and gets scanned when put on the delivery route for that day.

Yep thats right two scans in Parkwest then nothing for a week.

I didn't think the DSU were allowed to hold anything. afaik the DSU has to clear everything the day it comes in? Now I might not fully understand what a DSU is but my postman tells me that they are not allowed to leave the depot until its empty.

Darc19 · 11-12-2020 7:04pm

The Continental Op wrote: »

Yep thats right two scans in Parkwest then nothing for a week.

Which means it is probably in your local delivery office or a holding warehouse (finglas-- former jmob bread factory, portlaoise or little island) as the local office works through their parcels.

I'm just passing on info that I have that we get from an. No one has to accept it.

bocaman · 11-12-2020 7:06pm

A week ago I purchased and article online from a shop in Dublin. Got a confirmation email last Sunday to say it was dispatched. Still no sign.

The Continental Op · 11-12-2020 7:07pm

Darc19 wrote: »

Which means it is probably in your local delivery office or a holding warehouse (finglas-- former jmob bread factory, portlaoise or little island) as the local office works through their parcels.

I'm just passing on info that I have that we get from an. No one has to accept it.

The problem I have is the "holding warehouse".

Once stuff gets warehoused you don't know if its first in first out or if first in gets left at the back of the warehouse and is the last out?

Srfcsean · 11-12-2020 7:20pm

Looks like a complete **** show from an post they had since March to sort out stuff knowing all shops were shut , of course everyone was gonna go online , they need put up messages on there site saying they have backlogs of over a week simple as that , but it’s a complete **** show

gerard2210 · 11-12-2020 7:20pm

The Continental Op wrote: »

Yep thats right two scans in Parkwest then nothing for a week.

I didn't think the DSU were allowed to hold anything. afaik the DSU has to clear everything the day it comes in? Now I might not fully understand what a DSU is but my postman tells me that they are not allowed to leave the depot until its empty.

Under normal circumstances the DSU would be cleared every night, but with the volume of stuff going through at the moment it's not possible to clear the DSU every night. That's with extra night staff and everyone doing overtime. Covid restrictions means less casual staff employed this year.

The Continental Op · 11-12-2020 7:22pm

gerard2210 wrote: »

Under normal circumstances the DSU would be cleared every night, but with the volume of stuff going through at the moment it's not possible to clear the DSU every night. That's with extra night staff and everyone doing overtime. Covid restrictions means less casual staff employed this year.

All I can say is that my local postman told me today that they have to clear the DSU and always do there is no option at his DSU not to deliver stuff that day once its got that far.

gerard2210 · 11-12-2020 7:29pm

The Continental Op wrote: »

All I can say is that my local postman told me today that they have to clear the DSU and always do there is no option at his DSU not to deliver stuff that day once its got that far.

That applies to stuff sorted to his/her duty. Some small DSU's might clear what they have on a nightly basis, but the larger city one's not a hope.
Sorting has to finish by a certain time so the early shift of posties can get out before the second shift start to allow for social distancing.

Champ · 11-12-2020 7:46pm

Champ wrote: »

Hi,

I've an order from Amazon which is been delivered by An Post.

Been delivered in theory... according to the tracking (An Post own system) it was received by An Post in Dublin and was sorted and that was the last update since the 2nd of December.

Amazon themselves have said if it doesn't arrive today I can claim a refund.

How's everyone else doing in terms of An Post deliveries?
Should I write this off or still hold out some hope?

My package was just delivered today.

Looks like the backlog is at least moving.
Good luck to those still waiting on their deliveries.

Darc19 · 11-12-2020 7:53pm

Srfcsean wrote: »

Looks like a complete **** show from an post they had since March to sort out stuff knowing all shops were shut , of course everyone was gonna go online , they need put up messages on there site saying they have backlogs of over a week simple as that , but it’s a complete **** show

April they were doing about 1.2m/week.

Last black Friday they did 1.3m for the week

No one could forecast the 3.5m they did last week.

They have capacity of 3.2m because they DID invest in technology (two fully automated centres)

Srfcsean · 11-12-2020 8:10pm

Darc19 wrote: »

April they were doing about 1.2m/week.

Last black Friday they did 1.3m for the week

No one could forecast the 3.5m they did last week.

They have capacity of 3.2m because they DID invest in technology (two fully automated centres)

They new this was coming and weren’t ready for it , they need tell people there’s back logs instead of the usual cop out answer for everything now a days covid ðŸ€¦ðŸ€¦restrictions , they need put up on there site they have backlogs Of over 10 days and let people no

Darc19 · 11-12-2020 8:26pm

Srfcsean wrote: »

They new this was coming and weren’t ready for it , they need tell people there’s back logs instead of the usual cop out answer for everything now a days covid ðŸ€¦ðŸ€¦restrictions , they need put up on there site they have backlogs Of over 10 days and let people no

They've been shouting about the backlog since early Nov.

It's been in every paper, it's been mentioned here, it's been on radio, its been on TV.

Anyone who has proper customer engagement have added information to their websites or informed their customers.

You need to be under a rock not to have read their notices somewhere

I even passed on details of their notifications here. I think a mod even stickied it.

Srfcsean · 11-12-2020 8:39pm

Darc19 wrote: »

They've been shouting about the backlog since early Nov.

It's been in every paper, it's been mentioned here, it's been on radio, its been on TV.

Anyone who has proper customer engagement have added information to their websites or informed their customers.

You need to be under a rock not to have read their notices somewhere

I even passed on details of their notifications here. I think a mod even stickied it.

We’ve all seen man ðŸ˜‚ðŸ˜‚ exactly my point they new it was coming and use covid as an answer , covid no covid it was happening either way , my point is stop using covid as an excuse and actually tell people there’s back logs instead of throwing figures at people

whiterebel · 11-12-2020 8:42pm

Darc19 wrote: »

They've been shouting about the backlog since early Nov.

It's been in every paper, it's been mentioned here, it's been on radio, its been on TV.

Anyone who has proper customer engagement have added information to their websites or informed their customers.

You need to be under a rock not to have read their notices somewhere

I even passed on details of their notifications here. I think a mod even stickied it.

I think they sent it out to big clients then, but I think the first public announcement was last week, as far as I remember.

Darc19 · 11-12-2020 9:22pm

whiterebel wrote: »

I think they sent it out to big clients then, but I think the first public announcement was last week, as far as I remember.

Definitely was in the media around 10th Nov and again before black Friday where they gave predictions of 3m expected parcels (it was 3.5m)

davetherave · 11-12-2020 9:38pm

whiterebel wrote: »

I think they sent it out to big clients then, but I think the first public announcement was last week, as far as I remember.

A message was appearing on the An Post homepage at least since the 3rd of November saying "We’ll be delivering record numbers of parcels this week, more than ever before. We have the biggest delivery team in Ireland and they are working extremely hard to get your parcels to you. But don’t worry, we will deliver your item as quickly as we can."

The 11th of November - https://www.thejournal.ie/an-post-christmas-deliveries-5262276-Nov2020/ 'Please bear with us': Huge spike in parcel volumes causing delays as Level 5 online shopping booms

12th of November: https://www.newstalk.com/news/an-post-warns-of-potential-delays-as-parcel-volumes-grow-by-130-1104587

12th of November: An Post opens second Dublin e-commerce processing centre
https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2020/1112/1177651-new-an-post-processing-centre/

An Post expects to deliver more than 3.3 million parcels per week in 'busiest ever' fortnight

spookwoman · 11-12-2020 9:49pm

Parcl due next wednesday arrived this mornig.

Brock Turnpike · 11-12-2020 9:49pm

Champ wrote: »

My package was just delivered today.

Looks like the backlog is at least moving.
Good luck to those still waiting on their deliveries.

Mine was the exact same scenario as yours but mine arrived to An Post on the 4th. Hopefully it means I'll get my delivery in the next few days.

whiterebel · 11-12-2020 9:50pm

I didn't see it on their website, probably because I go straight into tracking, and I don't read/listen to the others, so that explains it. I put the thread up from Darc19 as it was the first official statement I was aware of.

Mario95 · 12-12-2020 11:49am

Darc19 wrote: »

7 day parcel delivery in urban areas. 6 day delivery all areas.

Does that 6 day delivery apply for all post or only commercial parcels?

charlietheminxx · 12-12-2020 1:56pm

Waiting for an order which left Germany on 1st of December. It hasn’t been scanned by An Post yet. I really hope it’s just delayed and not lost!

Cheshire Cat · 12-12-2020 2:00pm

charlietheminxx wrote: »

Waiting for an order which left Germany on 1st of December. It hasn’t been scanned by An Post yet. I really hope it’s just delayed and not lost!

Post to and from Germany takes 2 weeks + at the moment. Don't panic just yet!

0ph0rce0 · 12-12-2020 2:56pm

Srfcsean wrote: »

We’ve all seen man �� exactly my point they new it was coming and use covid as an answer , covid no covid it was happening either way , my point is stop using covid as an excuse and actually tell people there’s back logs instead of throwing figures at people

So an increase of over 2+ million packages getting banged out weekly with Christmas Casuals / Staff not being hired in the same numbers as previous years because they can't have everyone on top of each other with the social distancing rules in place because of COVID doesn't count?? Hmmmm

Imagine the amount of staff were hired as usual and then they get an outbreak in the mail centers, they'd have no staff and be shut down.

And that's just one COVID "excuse" as you say. Nobody would be getting anything.

bennyl10 · 12-12-2020 2:58pm

bocaman wrote: »

A week ago I purchased and article online from a shop in Dublin. Got a confirmation email last Sunday to say it was dispatched. Still no sign.

waiting on something dispatched on Monday.
easily a week dealy for sandard post things now

schmoo2k · 12-12-2020 3:13pm

charlietheminxx wrote: »

Waiting for an order which left Germany on 1st of December. It hasn’t been scanned by An Post yet. I really hope it’s just delayed and not lost!

Are you sure it has left - you can expect a week or two sitting on Koln if its DHL

Srfcsean · 12-12-2020 3:51pm

0ph0rce0 wrote: »

So an increase of over 2+ million packages getting banged out weekly with Christmas Casuals / Staff not being hired in the same numbers as previous years because they can't have everyone on top of each other with the social distancing rules in place because of COVID doesn't count?? Hmmmm

Imagine the amount of staff were hired as usual and then they get an outbreak in the mail centers, they'd have no staff and be shut down.

And that's just one COVID "excuse" as you say. Nobody would be getting anything.

People paid For a service that there not getting as far as I can see, the government told us to shop online we do and now they can’t deliver

spookwoman · 12-12-2020 6:22pm

2 items now from amazon and both arrived early. Something due next week arrived today.

Ronda1 · 13-12-2020 7:04am

ACitizenErased wrote: »

Waiting for a parcel that left the US on November 19th and hasn't arrived in Ireland yet. Seriously slow.

Have u had any joy?

Ronda1 · 13-12-2020 7:17am

Is anybody else having trouble with USPS packages not updating on an post system but landing in Dublin airport?? I know they have landed as past parcels I have gotten have showed up still without tracking updating on an post side?? Seriously seriously slow nearly 3 weeks waiting since it landed absolute joke

Mod - I moved your post here as it’s more relevant.

whiterebel · 13-12-2020 11:00am

Due to the pandemic there are very few flights with capacity from the US. USPS can only update their last part to departure airport, so it may not have left the States yet., or only flown in the last day or so.

dzsfah2xoynme9 · 13-12-2020 12:16pm

I must have been lucky. I bought a new phone off of ebay from a crowd in California. Bought it on the 30th of November and had it in my hand yesterday. USPS from California to Kentucky, DHL from there to Shannon.

13-12-2020 3:07pm

My package posted in Australia 10th November arrived in Ireland 10 December as per aus post.
No update as of yet from an post whether they have it or not.
Wonder will there be big delays on this?
All my amazon post has arrived in less than 4 days

smurfette2212 · 13-12-2020 3:09pm

Ronda1 wrote: »

Is anybody else having trouble with USPS packages not updating on an post system but landing in Dublin airport?? I know they have landed as past parcels I have gotten have showed up still without tracking updating on an post side?? Seriously seriously slow nearly 3 weeks waiting since it landed absolute joke

Mod - I moved your post here as it’s more relevant.

Yep! My parcel was last scanner leaving New York and then delivered to me maybe a week later. Nothing on the tracking though.

Darc19 · 13-12-2020 3:16pm

Sarai Black Parakeet wrote: »

I must have been lucky. I bought a new phone off of ebay from a crowd in California. Bought it on the 30th of November and had it in my hand yesterday. USPS from California to Kentucky, DHL from there to Shannon.

Possibly they have come to a recent agreement with DHL.
Or the sender opted for a higher cost service

DHL operate their own cargo aircraft and as such are not affected by the huge drop in passenger flights which is what most postal services use to move parcels between countries that are not connected by road.

marklazarcovic · 13-12-2020 5:26pm

0ph0rce0 wrote: »

So an increase of over 2+ million packages getting banged out weekly with Christmas Casuals / Staff not being hired in the same numbers as previous years because they can't have everyone on top of each other with the social distancing rules in place because of COVID doesn't count?? Hmmmm

Imagine the amount of staff were hired as usual and then they get an outbreak in the mail centers, they'd have no staff and be shut down.

And that's just one COVID "excuse" as you say. Nobody would be getting anything.

As a postie I gotta admit I'm fed up with people complaining about us at this stage,we have been up the walls doing 6 day weeks for ages, frontline ..house to house, village to village.. treble the workload ,no xtra help , nobody allowed to be trained in a area because two to a van not allowed...there are huge backlogs in all delivery services worldwide because of this,.. Christmas never creeps up on anyone .. nobody could predict lockdowns and explosion of parcels ordered..with no xtra workers allowed to help us out. I cant fit all the parcels in my van most days,have to get them dropped out to me and go over already covered ground again.

Its work technically I don't have to do as it's overtime, which the taxman fleeces me for,but if I don't people won't get their post/parcels because there isn't anyone else available to do it.

We are wrecked,stressed,and will probably sleep over the few days off at Xmas.. exhausted. Its no joke.

Pitch Dark going to work and pitch dark coming home .

Merry Christmas.

The Continental Op · 13-12-2020 5:46pm

marklazarcovic wrote: »

As a postie I gotta admit I'm fed up with people complaining about us at this stage,we have been up the walls doing 6 day weeks for ages, frontline ..house to house, village to village.. treble the workload ,no xtra help , nobody allowed to be trained in a area because two to a van not allowed...there are huge backlogs in all delivery services worldwide because of this,.. Christmas never creeps up on anyone .. nobody could predict lockdowns and explosion of parcels ordered..with no xtra workers allowed to help us out. I cant fit all the parcels in my van most days,have to get them dropped out to me and go over already covered ground again.

Its work technically I don't have to do as it's overtime, which the taxman fleeces me for,but if I don't people won't get their post/parcels because there isn't anyone else available to do it.

We are wrecked,stressed,and will probably sleep over the few days off at Xmas.. exhausted. Its no joke.

Pitch Dark going to work and pitch dark coming home .

Merry Christmas.

No one is blaming any postman out delivering mail!

It is however absurd to believe that An Post management had no idea that they would get the current volumes.

Then why would you need to train anyone if An Post had accepted Eircodes? There is no need to have a book with the names of the customers on your route if you can just look up the eircode on a mobile device.

13-12-2020 5:53pm

I made an order from Decathlon's site.

An Post delivering it, and emailed me with a generic "we have your parcel and aim to deliver it within 3 working days" email. I checked the tracking number on it:

04 December 2020, 05:56 - We have your post in DUBLIN DEPOT, DUBLIN

13 December 2020, 15:17 - Your delivery has been sorted in PARK WEST, DUBLIN 12

So it's been sitting in Dublin for about 9 days, and today it's been moved to Park West. Not sure how long it'll sit there. I'm in no panic or rush on it whatsoever (not a Xmas gift) but that's the longest delay I've ever experienced with An Post. They must be absolutely snowed under.

I'm very surprised they haven't started an ad campaign to encourage people to change to get their deliveries sent to their local depot and collect them themselves, as a means to speed things up a bit, rather than waiting on An Post delivering to their door.

Granadino · 13-12-2020 5:54pm

I'm in Spain and waiting for a package that was posted mid November from Ireland, but that could well be the fault of the Spanish post.

13-12-2020 6:02pm

The Continental Op wrote: »

No one is blaming any postman out delivering mail!

It is however absurd to believe that An Post management had no idea that they would get the current volumes.

Then why would you need to train anyone if An Post had accepted Eircodes? There is no need to have a book with the names of the customers on your route if you can just look up the eircode on a mobile device.

completely agree! With most retail closed in this country for the guts of 9 months and even with the latest Level 5 restrictions going on for 6 weeks how did An Post not realise this Christmas would be absolutely mental?

We have been urged by our Taoiseach and Tony Holohan throughout the entire Covid pandemic to shop online!!! How was this Christmas surge in postal deliveries not predicted by management in An Post, what on earth were they doing? The entire country has been shopping online for months!

marklazarcovic · 13-12-2020 6:34pm

The Continental Op wrote: »

No one is blaming any postman out delivering mail!

It is however absurd to believe that An Post management had no idea that they would get the current volumes.

Then why would you need to train anyone if An Post had accepted Eircodes? There is no need to have a book with the names of the customers on your route if you can just look up the eircode on a mobile device.

You have no clue what your talking about regarding deliveries so it's pointless talking to you about it. Eircodes are not sequential.. ask any courier..cris crossing every townland in the country because they don't know their customers names ,so they cant put the parcels in order in their vans.

An post use eircodes if the address isn't complete,or missing entirely,and isn't known to us.

AutoTuning · 14-12-2020 12:11am

Eircodes are useful for automatic sorting machines and for unknown addresses, but for a normal postal route, the person doing the deliveries is going to be looking at the top two lines of the address.

As for the delays, I am really not seeing anything that bad in Cork. I had packages delivered from various Irish retailers over the last few days with only minor delays and some overnight. Also they're pulling out all the stops and getting deliveries out even today, Sunday.

I think we're grossly underestimating the impact of the pandemic on retail and online shopping. They're not just a little bit beyond their maximum capacity, they're way over it. You can plan for something like this to some degree, but no company can reorganise itself to process 300% its normal volumes at short notice and you're really talking about short notice if you're saying a few months.

They'd need extra staff (not that complicated except for the training / social distancing etc), extra vehicles (can be hired to some degree), extra sorting machines (long delivery time probably would need to be ordered a year in advance and take considerable planning) and all of this for a situation that may resolve by mid 2021 and never repeat, which would leave them with huge amounts of surplus resources.

There's an unprecedented global pandemic. If your mail takes a bit longer, frankly: be patient and get over it.

I've no involvement with An Post or any of the other delivery companies, but I massively appreciate the job that front line staff in logistics, retail, warehousing and all of those areas that have kept us in food, clothes and now Christmas presents have done. They've kept the economy going through what has been an absolutely awful year.

If a package misses Xmas it misses Xmas. Hopefully we won't see another year like 2020 again, but I think we need to just accept that we are going through some extremely strange times and just enjoy what we can enjoy this year and stop freaking out over what are in reality relatively minor issues.

Spon Farmer · 14-12-2020 10:19am

My mother’s Christmas CDs are sitting in the Portlaosie sorting centre since the 7th (after sitting in Galway for most of a week before that).

I get there is delays but how can it not have moved after a week when things posted after it have arrived.

I contacted An Post to say that logic suggests the package has been overlooked or mislaid but I just get “different things cause delay for one, not for another”.

barrymanilow · 14-12-2020 2:24pm

Funnily enough the very large parcels I had come into the UK addresspal in Hatfield (bicycle) all got delivered to me days after being in Hatfield but the smaller stuff like a pair of shoes that arrived a week earlier to hatfield I am still waiting on and seem stuck in Dublin. They probably prioritize big parcels just to get them out of the way and make room , the smaller the item maybe the later you can expect it.

votecounts · 14-12-2020 2:28pm

marklazarcovic wrote: »

As a postie I gotta admit I'm fed up with people complaining about us at this stage,we have been up the walls doing 6 day weeks for ages, frontline ..house to house, village to village.. treble the workload ,no xtra help , nobody allowed to be trained in a area because two to a van not allowed...there are huge backlogs in all delivery services worldwide because of this,.. Christmas never creeps up on anyone .. nobody could predict lockdowns and explosion of parcels ordered..with no xtra workers allowed to help us out. I cant fit all the parcels in my van most days,have to get them dropped out to me and go over already covered ground again.

Its work technically I don't have to do as it's overtime, which the taxman fleeces me for,but if I don't people won't get their post/parcels because there isn't anyone else available to do it.

We are wrecked,stressed,and will probably sleep over the few days off at Xmas.. exhausted. Its no joke.

Pitch Dark going to work and pitch dark coming home .

Merry Christmas.

Thanks for all the hard work, no complaints from me.
Take care, much appreciation for you and your fellow posties:)

afro man · 14-12-2020 2:35pm

Posted medium package registered post 8th Dec for delivery in Ireland.. No trackin visibility yet called to post off Saturday. was told by staff member... Oh there is huge delays without even checkin system for package. So nearly one week later it looks like it still in my local post office.. Crazy service

Inbound and internal An Post Delays

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