Delivery Information
Last updated: 05. December 2020
We are working with our postal/courier partners to maintain services, however delays should be expected. Many countries have implemented special measure to combat the spread of Coronavirus COVID-19, especially for signature service to maintain social distancing.
The number of countries that we can access is changing daily. Most major export routes remain open, and we continue to accept and process orders, although customers may experience varying levels of delay.
There are significant delays to a number of countries right now due to a lack of available transport links and suspension of certain country’s postal operations. Please keep this in mind before contacting us. It is also advisable to check with your local postal service provider for delays.
AUSTRALIA
There are no delays to letters and parcels being despatched to Australia from the UK. During April and early May, we had less regular access to Australia, but this has now stabilised and we have regular freight flights via en-route transit points. This means mail takes a little longer than usual, but is a reliable shipment route.
Mail to Australia is currently only entering via Sydney, as opposed to multiple gateways normally used to get items closer to their final destination. A huge reduction in airline capacity means this is not possible at the moment. Also, mail volumes into Australia, like many countries, is significantly higher than usual.
As a result, there are considerable delays in items passing through the Sydney gateway and into Australia Post's domestic network, as well as extended delivery times once in country. For more information, please visit the Australia Post website.
We recommend allowing up to 45 days for items to arrive. (most orders will arrive on 14 - 20 days)
Start date: 30 September 2020
Latest Update:
End date: Ongoing
Incident: Additional Prohibited Products
Australia Post has advised of additional screening measures on inbound mail into Australia for new biosecurity risks. They will not provide compensation for items being destroyed due to containing prohibited products. We expect a slow-down on inbound mail processing due to increased inspection and scrutiny.
Please check the official Australian Government website for more details.
The Government of New Zealand has moved the Auckland region down to Alert Level 1 of the national pandemic plan, meaning that all restrictions have been lifted. However, the alternate route available to New Zealand is still in place - see below - and there may be delays to mail deliveries.
There are no delays to letters and parcels leaving the UK for New Zealand. Throughout April and early May we experienced difficulties in accessing consistent air capacity to New Zealand. We now have regular flights via Los Angeles. However, this takes longer than usual, but is a reliable route.
We understand a backlog of traffic was held at Auckland Airport in recent weeks and also in Auckland’s processing centre. Therefore, some customers may experience considerable delays because of the increase in ecommerce volumes coming from the USA, UK and Australia.
This, along with the impact of social distancing being experienced by all logistics companies, may mean customers experience items being delivered out of sequence, so not all traffic is being processed and delivered in date order. This affects all mail, not just that from Royal Mail (UK).
Accordingly, delivery times in April and early May were lengthy, but in May as a whole we saw 50% of Tracked items being delivered in 15 days and a steady reduction in items awaiting clearance into the NZ Post domestic operation. This is a continuously improving situation and NZ Post are stating that once handed to their domestic network, they will deliver items in 5 days. For further updates, please visit the NZ Post website.
We recommend allowing up to 45 days for items to arrive. (most orders will arrive on 14 - 20 days)
GERMANY
LAST POSTING DATE FOR CHRISTMAS DELIVERY 6th DECEMBER
Germany has put special measures in place from Monday 16 March, to limit the spread of Coronavirus. Deutsche Post need to comply with these measures and may have reduced staff numbers so not able to deliver all mail to specifications. Signature on delivery is suspended and delays to mail services can be expected.