With shops closed and people stuck at home thanks to coronavirus, it’s perhaps unsurprising that delivery company PostNL delivered a record number of packages in the Netherlands in 2020.

337 million packages delivered in the Netherlands

Last year, PostNL delivered 337 million packages - 54 million more than in 2019 and 19 percent more than the annual average. The company also saw a sharp increase in the number of deliveries in the last few weeks of 2020 as people sent more Christmas cards and packages than in “normal” years in an attempt to cheer up friends and family and stay connected.

According to the PostNL, around 25 million of the deliveries in 2020 were one-off deliveries that can be wholly attributed to the ongoing coronavirus crisis, and so they don’t expect this increase to be the start of an ongoing trend. 

The effect of coronavirus on online shopping and deliveries

And while the festive season may be behind us, the deliveries don’t appear to be slowing down any time soon. This busyness may not last forever, but PostNL continues to handle an average of 1,6 million packages per day. 

Parcel Director Liesbeth Kaashoek told NU.nl that, as far as the company is concerned, it still feels like Christmas. She notes that the future remains uncertain, but that as e-commerce continues to grow - around one-fifth of consumer spending in the Netherlands now occurs online - PostNL is looking to expand their daily sorting capacity to two million packages by the end of 2021.