Česká pošta has been pushed to their full capacity, breaking a personal record of having over 1.1 million packages in their possession, the most in their history and more than double than last year because of the pandemic-induced online shopping trend.
According to spokesman Ivo Vysoudil, the state-owned delivery service has at least 1,128,805 in their possession, up from roughly 500,000 from 2019, forcing them to hire more part-time deliverymen.
Vysoudil says that while there may be the odd delay from the overwhelming demand, for the most part, everything should be smooth sailing as they continue to score high success rates with their deliveries.
“As far as delivery of packages go, we’re approaching the maximum capacity that our systems allow us to transport… We deliver most shipments on time; We have a 92% success rate for deliveries to their intended addresses, and most arrive by the next day. However, due to such a huge number, there are some delays.”
Vysoudil says though there will be probably delays, there’s no concrete limits on how many packages can be delivered, and eventually all packages will be successfully delivered. He also notes that the opening of stores and easing of restrictions will take some of the load off.
The post office is requesting an additional 750 million Kč in funding from the state for their troubles during the holidays.
Česká pošta isn’t the only delivery service being strained; PPL, DPD and Zásilkovna are also recording exponential increases in demand, with hundreds of thousands of parcels flowing through their networks as well.
According to some analysts, roughly 65 billion Kč worth of goods will be purchased on the internet this year, which is an increase of 25% compared to last year. The next two weeks should see the peak in online shopping in Czech Republic.
