Post Office faces backlog of 4.8 million items following strike!
https://www.all4women.co.za/1630543...backlog-of-4-8-million-items-following-strike
The South African Post Office (SAPO) is dealing with a local mail backlog of about 4.8 million items after a strike about four months ago led to a backlog of almost 38 million parcels and letters.
“From a local perspective, we are down to 4.8 million items in the backlogs,” CEO Mark Barnes said. Barnes added that they were expecting to have the backlog cleared by end of November.
However the international figure is much higher
“International mail is a little bit more complex because we are seeing an influx and a high volume of items being ordered online and those goods require a lot of servicing,” said Barnes.
He said in some instances, the SAPO had to manually intervene by checking invoices and counter parcels. That also caused a backlog in international mail.
Barnes said the Post Office was prioritising items, from those that were “more urgent ” to those which weren’t priority mail. “With mails such as things like magazines and so, you would expect the backlog to be more,” he said.
He said staff members were doing their best to catch up, especially because of the peak, Christmas season. “For us, Christmas starts at around October and runs through to January. That’s our peak four months of the year...
“We are in discussions internationally with having more than one point of entry into SA and not have everything coming to us. If things are destined for KZN, we are trying to root them straight into Durban rather than (having) them coming through our terminals,” he said.
He added that the department was also deploying people to assist in mail centres every Friday.
https://www.all4women.co.za/1630543...backlog-of-4-8-million-items-following-strike
The South African Post Office (SAPO) is dealing with a local mail backlog of about 4.8 million items after a strike about four months ago led to a backlog of almost 38 million parcels and letters.
“From a local perspective, we are down to 4.8 million items in the backlogs,” CEO Mark Barnes said. Barnes added that they were expecting to have the backlog cleared by end of November.
However the international figure is much higher
“International mail is a little bit more complex because we are seeing an influx and a high volume of items being ordered online and those goods require a lot of servicing,” said Barnes.
He said in some instances, the SAPO had to manually intervene by checking invoices and counter parcels. That also caused a backlog in international mail.
Barnes said the Post Office was prioritising items, from those that were “more urgent ” to those which weren’t priority mail. “With mails such as things like magazines and so, you would expect the backlog to be more,” he said.
He said staff members were doing their best to catch up, especially because of the peak, Christmas season. “For us, Christmas starts at around October and runs through to January. That’s our peak four months of the year...
“We are in discussions internationally with having more than one point of entry into SA and not have everything coming to us. If things are destined for KZN, we are trying to root them straight into Durban rather than (having) them coming through our terminals,” he said.
He added that the department was also deploying people to assist in mail centres every Friday.
