08-04-2020

The exceptional situation arising from the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in an unexpectedly sharp rise in online sales and, consequently, the number of parcels. More than one million parcels passed through Posti last week. Posti has added resources to deal with the large parcel volume.

Online sales have increased much faster than normal due to the state of emergency. In this situation, many retailers are offering their customers free home deliveries, which has increased especially the demand for home deliveries.

“It is vital that home deliveries can make staying at home easier in these circumstances. Posti delivers goods, food and traditional mail. We have increased the number of employees and deliveries as well as obtained new parcel handling facilities to be able to provide our services as normally as possible,” explains Jarmo Ainasoja, exceptional circumstances leader, Posti.

“Unfortunately, the surprisingly sharp rise in demand has resulted in regional delays for Home Parcels in the capital region. We apologize for the inconvenience. The additional resources we have now introduced should fix the issue by next week at the latest. The delay is due to the large volume of parcels,” says Jarmo Ainasoja.

For the time being, the situation with the coronavirus has not materially affected Posti’s services – parcels are sorted and delivered to pickup points and homes even during the Easter weekend

Posti’s services are provided by more than 20,000 people performing different service tasks around Finland. Partners are working side-by-side with Posti’s employees in deliveries and our service points, for example. Parcels and goods are transported by more than 400 local transport companies, and Posti’s service points are run by more than 800 partners. Posti is tasked with securing services also in exceptional situations.

“We have already increased our resources, and we will keep doing so. Even though this coming Friday is a holiday, parcels will be sorted and transported to the pickup points once again on Saturday and, in some parts of the country, also on Sunday. Home Parcels will also be delivered on Saturday. Our aim is to also open temporary parcel pickup points next week. We will have more information about this in the next few days,” says Jarmo Ainasoja.

Because of the exceptional situation, there may be local or individual changes in some of the services resulting from either country-specific restrictions, the closure of premises due to the coronavirus or other exceptional circumstances. You can find more information about these in the daily update and FAQ sections on Posti’s website.

The health of our employees and customers takes precedence – we are working in accordance with the official guidelines

“Our primary objective is to ensure the health and safety of our employees and customers. We receive daily information from the authorities and public health. When it comes to the services, I have the great pleasure of saying that – considering the state of emergency – everything is working very well, for which we have our employees to thank. We are making preparations and working together to keep our services running,” says Jarmo Ainasoja.

Posti is prepared for different kinds of exceptional circumstances. Posti’s multidisciplinary group for exceptional circumstances operates 24/7/365. Posti currently acts in accordance with the instructions provided by Finnish government officials (Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare THL and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health) and protects the health of its personnel and customers according to these instructions.

Source: Posti