Get ready for peak season

Have your packing workflow ready to go: well packaged parcels have fewer delays, so make sure your staff are well versed on packing procedures, and know how to meet carrier packaging requirements. For more information about packaging, see the Packaging guidelines article.

Protect your parcels: you can also consider transit protection to ensure that orders arrive in the same condition they left your warehouse. For more information about transit protection, see the About transit protection article.

Take control of shipping costs and complex deliveries: set automatic business rules that allocate orders based on everything from weight, dimensions, and parcel count, to speciality delivery services and locations. For more information about automation, see the Smart shipping rules article.

Ship uninterrupted when outages happen: With national carriers managing record delivery volumes, system slowdowns or temporary outages can occur without warning.. To protect your business this peak season, turn on fallback quoting and automated rate card updates for Australia Post and StarTrack.

Enable proof of delivery photos: Where available Shippit surfaces proof of delivery photos on our tracking page and notifications. Your staff can also access and download proof of delivery photos from the Shippit dashboard to resolve WISMO and delivery disputes faster.. To see which carriers support proof of delivery, see the proof of delivery section in the Developer Guide. You can also review the guidance we provide for package receivers.

Smart split order tracking: Fulfilling orders from multiple locations? Give customers a clear view of orders with more than one delivery, and proactive updates for every shipment. For more information about deliveries with multiple parcels, see the orders with multiple shipments article.

Review your branded tracking experience: Make sure your tracking pages, notifications, and branding are up to date, and that you’re delivering updates through the channels your customers prefer, whether that’s email, SMS, or Apple Wallet. See the delivery notifications article, and the Apple Wallet order tracking article.

Know your deadlines: we use a combination of historical Shippit transit time data, and carriers' indicative dates for cut off to provide you with a single set of deadlines to use for shipping across town, across the country, or across the world. Keep an eye out on the Shippit Help Centre for 2025 Christmas cut-off times.

Avoid international delays: for international shipments, make sure you have the correct labelling and required documentation on the order before you ship. This helps to avoid delays with customs clearance. For more information about international shipping, see the International shipping collection.

Manifest in the morning: manifest goods early in the day to avoid missed collections and delays with data transfers which can result in surcharges from carriers. For more information about manifests, see the Understanding manifests article.

Organise your pickups by carrier, early: you can also separate packages by carrier in an easy-to-access dispatch location. This helps to avoid confusion when drivers arrive to collect their packages. Make sure you have carrier pickups organised ahead of time where you can, and prioritise dispatching interstate orders before intrastate and local metro orders, so that they are collected by the carrier and on their way sooner. For more information about managing pickups, see the Understanding pickups article.

Keep an eye on your carriers: stay ahead of what's happening with your carriers, by watching our Carrier updates collection, and the Shippit status page.

Watch shipping times: Shippit carrier experts keep an eye on the entire network, so that you don't have to. Find out how each shipping lane is performing right now, with regular updates in the Carrier transit times article, updated at least weekly.

Watch your store performance: keep a close eye on how your warehouse is performing, so that you can spot inefficiencies early and ensure your carrier mix is optimised. You can do this with the data provided in your Shippit dashboard. For more information about what data is available, see the Shippit insights collection.