Parcel centre a hive of activity as demand grows

WHEN somebody buys something online – as more and more people are doing – they probably give little thought to how their item reaches them.

Their goods either turn up in their letterbox or are handed to them by a postman or a contract driver – and that’s the end of the matter.

But tucked away in a side street off Carngham Road in Delacombe, there’s a bustling facility that operates almost around the clock to make certain that those purchases arrive safely and in good time at their destinations.

The 13,024-square-metre facility is Australia Post’s Ballarat Parcel Delivery Centre, which opened in 2023 to respond to the change in buying habits and exploding demand.

In the past calendar year alone, the centre processed more than 3.5 million large parcels, with a peak of over 320,000 during the December Christmas lead-up.

It also handled 997,000 Express Post parcels and 777,000 small parcels.

Ninety staff and 60 contractors work out of the Icon Drive centre, including the very visible “regular” posties who deliver letters and small parcels to addresses in and around Ballarat.

The centre also handles parcels bound for destinations in an area stretching from Ballan to Kaniva and surrounds.

Facility manager Tim Gallagher said posties might once have delivered about 3000 articles a day, but as physical letters and similar items became less common they now average between 400 and 500 a day.

“So if you’ve got 1800 houses (on a run) you’d stop at every house,” he said.

“Now if you’ve only got 400 letters and you’ve got 1800 houses, you’re riding past houses.

“You don’t have the volume.”

Mr Gallagher said that was why posties were now delivering small parcels along with items like letters.

In the main parcel section of the building, a state-of-the-art sorting machine known as a ModSort flexible sorter feeds parcels into specific containers – including “forward” items bound for areas outside the Ballarat catchment.

Those are transported overnight for ultimate loading and delivery by contractors in other areas.

Mr Gallagher said the automated parcel sorting machine was the first of its kind operating in Australia and was installed at the Ballarat facility as a trial.

He said the growth in parcels averaged between 15 and 18 per cent a year, growth that he agreed was primarily due to the explosion in online shopping.

Australia Post estimates that Australians spent a record $69 billion online last year. If the organisation is the nominated carrier, it must have ways of getting those items to the buyers.

That is why the facility was built.

Mr Gallagher said between 10,000 and 12,000 parcels passed through the centre each day – up to 8000 of which are delivered in Ballarat.

Each local parcel contractor has up to 200 items on board each day.

Mr Gallagher said the two-hour delivery window alert for customers, which has been progressively rolled out since 2020, was a way of ensuring first-time deliveries and improving the turnaround time.

He explained that the alerts give customers an opportunity to arrange their activities so they are available to receive their parcels on the first delivery attempt.