Wheelbarrow and bags of cement delivered by An Post van

(Above) Johnny Riggs, Ballynacargy postman, has delivered a wheelbarrow and bags of cement to local man, Jim Cusack. Last Wednesday, he also had a hurl in his van for another local person.

The wheelbarrow and bags of cement that Ballynacargy postman Johnny Riggs dropped off at Jim Cusack’s house were among the millions of items An Post workers have delivered since the lockdown started.

The bags of cement weren’t the first unusual items Jim had ordered, he told the Westmeath Examiner last week.

“During the height of the Covid-19 lockdown, I was at home, and I had nothing to do. I was desperate for materials, couldn’t get them anywhere, so I went online, shopped around a bit, and found that I could order things like a wheelbarrow – the barrow broke when we were doing a few things around the house, so I ordered a wheelbarrow.

“I was expecting it would come by courier, but it arrived the next morning in the post, with Johnny Riggs – in the regular van.”

“I saw I could get a wheelbarrow [from Glanbia], so I said ‘I’ll get a couple of bags of cement’. The delivery wasn’t much either, four or five euro, I know it’s a good bit for two bags, but still, I needed them, so that was it. It suited me.

“And once again I thought they’d come by courier – but no, Johnny arrived with them, in the regular van... and I’d say if I wasn’t there to open the gate, he might have jumped the wall like he often does!”

Jim was using the time at home to fix a manhole and pipes that were giving trouble. “I’d been threatening to do it for ages, so I thought I’d do it then, and I needed the wheelbarrow for gardening, working with the kids tidying up around the house. Like everything, we’d had a wheelbarrow for years, then we started using it, and the wheel went on it.”

Johnny Riggs, the local postman, was surprised to see the two bags of cement waiting for delivery. “They were sitting there with other packages over them, and I said to myself, ‘thank God he didn’t order a tonne of it, because I’d never get it in the van’.

“I had a seat of a car another day, for a local garage,” said Johnny. “You don’t know what you’re going to see in the morning, it could be anything.”

Anna McHugh, head of Corporate Communications at An Post, said that the service has exceeded 1 million parcels per week in recent times.

“The parcel volumes are huge, though it remains to be seen what impact the reopening of the retail sector will have on online shopping behaviour,” said Ms McHugh.

“Dedicated online shoppers continue to shop more and more online, and we expect that those people who had no choice but to start online shopping during lockdown will continue for at least some of their needs.

“It’s great to see more Irish retailers growing their online operations and their parcels coming through. There is a massive opportunity here for more Irish retailers.”

Ms McHugh advised SMEs to put proper online offering and delivery logistics in place to cater for current volumes and potential growth, despite shop doors opening up again.

“It’s a different story for letters, however – approximately 95% of letters originate with business, and with so many shut and trading disrupted, volumes have been hit – in the region of 30% it appears, though some of this will return in the coming weeks.

“It has been wonderful to see a rise in the level of personal mail during the Covid-19 crisis, much of it kick-started by our free postage-paid postcards, and continuing as people remembered the joy of a personal message.

“There have been lots of care parcels too for the cocooners and bored children! Personal mail, however, is a small element of the overall scenario.”

An Post has launched a €2m support package for SMEs, to help them kick-start their business and to begin trading online. See https://www.anpost.com/Commerce/Home.

Unusual items An Post has delivered

• Wheelbarrows

• 60-inch TVs

• Ladders

• Ironing boards

• Armchairs

• Parasols

• Outdoor furniture

• Barbecues

• Punch Bags

• Weights

• Home exercise equipment such as treadmills

• Wicker – decorations up to 6ft tall

• Car exhausts

• Car bumpers

• Swing sets (self-assembly)

• Trampolines (smaller ones)