International Freight and COVID-19

A year has passed since the first COVID-19 lockdown in New Zealand, and I thought it would be worthy of listing a few points relating to the impact on global logistics, and more importantly, the impact COVID-19 continues to have on New Zealand and how this relates to you getting your package in a reasonable time-frame.

We are doing better than I anticipated

New Zealand has done surprisingly well considering its geographic location vs. delivery hold-ups and/or delivery targets. ‘Personal’ freight or parcels are back-loaded onto passenger flights to and from New Zealand, given the massive decrease in flights, I expected this to have a greater impact on customers receiving their items (and initially there were some hold-ups). However, things seemed to have smoothed out. Adding between 5 - 12 business days to stated logistic providers target delivery times continues to be a safe and accurate estimate.

Virtually no performance difference in pricing-tiers

Part of my service is selecting the best-service vs. price relative to your needs. There are a few things to think about, such as insurance, tracking, signature delivery and whether the logistic provider has dedicated delivery assets. If items aren’t time sensitive and low-value, I will almost always recommend New Zealand Posts tracked but non-signature delivery product for on-account customers. This tier has $250 NZD worth of insurance cover for loss and damage. Surprisingly, the delivery time-frames for this product are on-par with the considerably more expensive International Courier product they also offer. TNT / FedEx also have slightly skewed delivery times in this regard, however still continue to offer the best price-performance rate for items over 3 - 4kg comparative to NZ Post.

ANZAC Issues?

One observation in recent months has been the delays between freight from Australia and New Zealand. I had (wrongly) assumed this route would have been least impacted, given the regularity of flights between countries, even in the times of COVID. Delivery times are tending towards an increase of 8 - 12 business days vs. stated target times. Notwithstanding, all items I have sent to Australia have arrived safely.

Document, Declare, Package and Photograph Properly.

Something rolls down-hill. I will let your imagination fill in the gap on that one. Any good freight-forwarder worth their weight will tell you, you are not paying them for when things go right, you are paying them for when they go wrong.

In my case, I deal in bespoke freight-forwarding requests for items specifically from New Zealand, as opposed to large bulk-freight. That means I spend a good deal of time ensuring things are properly packaged, documented, declared and photographed prior to dispatch.

Given logistically uncertainty continues to be an issue, if things do go wrong I am in the best position to lodge a successful insurance claim. I have only had two thus far (insurance claims), and because I refuse to take no for an answer, and did the above properly - they were both successful . Notwithstanding, given freight related insurance claims have increased as a result of COVID related damage and loss, so too has the scrutiny under which decisions are made as to whether claims are accepted, and in the unlikely event of a lodged claim, my attention to detail will ensure you are not out of pocket.