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How Are You Supposed To Pick Up Parcels At The Post Office When You Work Full Time?

How Are You Supposed To Pick Up Parcels At The Post Office When You Work Full Time?
Carly Jacobs
This post is sponsored by Australia Post.

This is a question that has been plaguing me for much of my adult life. When I worked a desk job about 6 years ago, it was literally impossible for me to pick up a parcel at the post office. I worked 9 to 5 and my office was a 45 minute drive away from my local P.O, so I was only ever available to go and get my parcels once they were already closed. I couldn’t have my packages delivered to my work place because it was a university and actually getting the package into the right hands was a total nightmare. Thankfully I had kept in touch with my former boss from the time I worked at my local post office as a teenager. And as a favour, she would take my parcels back to her place for me to collect after work. This is obviously a solution that’s available to almost no one, so at the time I would wonder how other people managed to get their packages within normal working hours. I now work from home and my trip to the post office is often the most exciting part of my day but for most Australians, who work in offices and probably for longer hours than ever, I know of a solution that may well change your life. Well, maybe not your life but it’ll certainly make your post office dealings a hell of a lot easier. Australia Post has recently introduced 24/7 Parcel Lockers so that you can pick up your parcels any time you like. 6am in the morning when you’re walking your dog, 3am when you’ve just finished a night shift or even at 6.30pm when you’ve just finished work and the post office counter has just closed.

Why Parcel Lockers Rock

PO1

They’re 100% flexible

You can go and get your parcel any time you like. At 6am or at midnight. It doesn’t matter. You’re the boss baby. You’re a free spirit. You won’t be tamed by your post office’s opening hours. You’re a lone wolf. You can register for the Parcel Lockers online here. You can also register for lockers at different locations which is totally bad arse. I once used a Parcel Locker to have swimsuit delivered to me in Queensland. I felt extremely savvy that day.

You don’t have to wait in line

The last time I was at the post office, the dude standing behind me SNIFFED MY HAIR. As if that wasn’t awkward enough but I had to stand there in front of him for another 20 minutes while the person in front of me posted what seemed like 400 parcels. Parcel Lockers are the perfect way to avoid this awkwardness. [divider type=”thin” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]

You know exactly when your parcel arrives

When the parcel reaches the locker Australia Post texts or emails you a code which is brilliant because you might right near your Parcel Locker and you can just pop in and grab it. Futuristic. [divider type=”thin” width=”1/1″ el_position=”first last”]

You can pretend like you’re a spy

You go inside the parcel locker room, type in your code and a door just pops open. It actually feels like you’re one of Ocean’s Eleven cracking the code on a vault. Super sneaky. ‘Gee, I wonder which locker my parcel is hiding in? MAGICAL LUCKY DIP!!!’

Another service Australia Post has started offering is Parcel Collect. Basically, you register online and you choose the Australia Post location where you would like your parcel delivered to. You then receive notification as soon as your parcel is ready for collection. Easy!

Why Parcel Collect Rocks

No need to re-arrange your day

If you’re expecting an important delivery, you don’t have to sit at home all day waiting for it. You just get sent a text message when the package arrives at your chosen post office, which is brilliant because you can just go about your day as normal. You can sign up for Parcel Collect for free here.  PO2

You can keep your online shopping habits a secret from your spouse

There’s nothing quite like a pile of post office slips to give away the fact that you went on a little shopping binge last month. With Parcel Collect you can pick your fancy new boots up from the post office, sneak them inside the house and pretend you’ve had them for ten years. Stealth. You can also have larger deliveries like boxes of wine delivered with Parcel Collect. Win. PO4 ‘Oh there you are you sneaky sausage!’

No annoying letterbox surprises

You’ll no longer experience that annoying moment when you get home from the post office, only to find that there’s another parcel notification waiting for you there.

You can keep your address private

This is perfect for people who are part of online communities that trade goods. You can never be too careful with giving out your address and this way you can give your ‘address’ to anyone and they’ll never know where you actually live. Stalker weirdo prevention is always a bonus.

Over to you…

How do you pick up your parcels? Do you find navigating parcel delivery as difficult as I do?

This post is co-ordinated by The Remarkables Group 

 

21 Comments

  1. Erika 10 years ago

    Health issues mean I work mostly from home, so there are no dramas whatsoever – other than the bull terrier having fits about a delivery man being At His Doorstep!!!! Seriously, that dog has spring loaded legs. We’ve got a gate at the top of the steps, so they know to knock on the study window and then stay behind the gate. That way I can get out the front door to sign and take delivery without having to apologise for Winston or race off after him as he charges across the suburb.

    • Author
      Smaggle 10 years ago

      Oh what a cutie! He’s trying to protect you! I live in an apartment and half the time the post men don’t even attempt to deliver it, they just put the note in the mail box. So frustrating. The parcel locker has changed everything. We love it.

  2. This is so good! We have issues with mail being stolen as our apartment building letterboxes are on the street. I’ve got a PO Box now but it’s still a pain to collect parcels during office hours some days.

    • Author
      Smaggle 10 years ago

      You need to get a parcel locker. We’ve had one for a year and it’s great. Ou post office is right in the funky area of Fitzroy so I’m often walking home at midnight and I’ll pop in and pick my parcels. So awesome.

  3. Liz @ I Spy Plum Pie 10 years ago

    Gah this has been one of the most frustrating things about moving house. My old place was near a post office that was open Saturdays, but my new place isn’t which has made things verrrry tricky. I get some stuff delivered to work, but given I walk to work if it’s awkward sized or heavy I can’t do that! Looks like none of the parcel collect places near me are open Saturdays either!
    Luckily one of my best mates works right near my place, so sometimes she will pick up a parcel for me on her lunchbreak, then I meet her after she finishes work to get it from her – laborious, but it’s working ok!

    • Author
      Smaggle 10 years ago

      The parcel lockers are open 24 hours… you’re in Collingwood yeah? Just down the road from me? The Gore St parcel lockers are open 24/7 and they’re like a 10 minute walk from almost anywhere in Fitzroy!

  4. Now I just need something that will teleport the package from the parcel locker into my lounge room…

    • Author
      Smaggle 10 years ago

      I know right? I keep waiting for Wonka vision to be a thing.

  5. Sammy 10 years ago

    I’ve used my parcel locker upward of 30 times. It’s amazing for all the reasons you said.

    • Author
      Smaggle 10 years ago

      I love mine, I’d never have my parcels delivered to my house. Not worth the waste of time! 🙂

  6. Dee 10 years ago

    I’m loving some of the work Australia Post has been doing over the last year or two (who thought anyone would say that about the post office?). They’re really innovative, even doing things like an app to send postcards while you’re away with your own photos and using QR codes to record videos to loved ones at Christmas time. It’s all very good. Thanks, Oz Post!

    • Author
      Smaggle 10 years ago

      I think so too! I actually bought travel insurance from them recently and it was great! Like $70 for a short trip to Bali. Bargain.

  7. JessB 10 years ago

    Lately, I keep hearing from friends who work at home that their parcels aren’t being delivered – aren’t even attempted to be delivered! The drivers are just putting ‘We tried to deliver your parcel but you were out’ slips right in their letterbox without even knocking. I think that is so terrible.
    I do love the idea of Australia Post, but I just really dislike the way they are doing business now. It seems like they are so resentful of email and texting taking away the need for people to send lots of letter, and yet simultaneously so resentful of the massive increase of parcels being sent. I don’t get it, but I know I don’t like that attitude.
    Having had that rant, I do like the sounds of these parcel lockers – very convenient, for sure.

    • Author
      Smaggle 10 years ago

      I’m not actually sure what you mean there love, I think they’re being really innovative. Parcel lockers and collect are the perfect solution to the change in their market and I also love that they’re smart enough to work with bloggers on their advertising campaigns because their target marker – internet shoppers! – are hanging around on blogs.
      Parcel lockers are rad though, I don’t have much need for parcel collect but the locker has changed my life. Love it. Also I’m like your friend – it’s an apartment block thing I think. They never ring my bell unless they’re a courier. So frustrating!

      • JessB 10 years ago

        Oh, I think these parcel lockers are really cool, and as you say, very innovative.
        But I heard the other day that Australia Post are looking at cutting down deliveries to 3 times a week, and offering a premium 5 day a week delivery service that you can pay for. Although that wouldn’t affect my day-to-day life very much, I just find the idea of cutting down on their core business really bizarre and counter-intuitive. Fewer deliveries? I don’t get it.
        And the parcel delivery thing – you get paid to deliver them, so deliver them! I don’t mind if they try, and keep missing you, but to not even try?! I really object to that.

  8. Marie 10 years ago

    Hah! I’m impressed you’re so impressed : ) We’ve had these in Germany for years! For identification it uses a “membership” card (it’s golden!) and a PIN, which you get sent via text when you receive something. Our stations also collect deliveries – you just scan the code on your parcel, choose which size, the station opens one of the doors, you put your parcel in and bam! Off it goes the next morning… And you never have to see the grumpy gift-shop-post-office-combination-shop clerks ever again.

    • Author
      Smaggle 10 years ago

      They collect deliveries too? I need to live in Germany. Efficiency is my most favourite thing.

  9. Margaret Johnson 9 years ago

    Two days waiting for a small parcel and praying the postman isn’t sitting out there writing up his cards and preparing to stuff them in our mailboxes. Such a useless waste of everyone’s time.
    Have lost track of postage collection on Express Post. Vowing ” no more parcels, ever”.

  10. Baron Swanston 6 years ago

    Getting a text message when your parcel arrives at the Post Office useing parcel collect does not work, I cannot find anybody within Aussie post who can tell me how to get the text message service to work with parcel collect, I have had parcels sitting at the Post Office for weeks with no notification, untill I went there and asked..

  11. Tony Bennett 2 years ago

    Can I have existing parcels in a POBox transferred to a 24/7 parcel locker

Pingbacks

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