Courier company DHL delivers 37 parcels every minute as online shopping fuels Christmas boom

Courier company DHL is in the middle of its busiest month ever, with one parcel being delivered every 1.6 seconds.

The company has been delivering an average of 37 parcels per minute throughout the month of December.

This compares to 24 parcels per minute in December 2015 and just seven parcels five years ago.

DHL Express NZ country manager Mark Foy says the surge in deliveries is the result of booming online shopping in the run up to Christmas.

"We'll do about 300 thousand shipments over December," says Mr Foy.

"It's crazy but it's fantastic. We're helping importers and exporters deliver their goods around New Zealand."

Foy says the rush is starting earlier every year with the growing popularity of large overseas sales periods.

"We see Cyber Monday and Black Friday kicking us off in late November.

"We bring on new people or we bring on temporary workforce for the Christmas period.

"We'll have couriers delivering on Boxing Day and on Christmas Eve to make sure we get the parcels out."

Foy says online shopping has helped the company grow at a double digit rate and resulted in a new $15 million building at Auckland Airport to process the growth in deliveries.

"Certainly consumers are finding more choice globally and that means they can shop off any site anywhere in the world and we can bring it in in one or two days."

But Foy says the online shopping boom is also good for New Zealand business.

"We're actually seeing New Zealand exporters take the opportunities as well.

"So small and medium companies working out of the back of a garage can now ship anywhere in the world and we can get it there in a couple of days.

"It means they grow, they employ more people and it means we're helping the New Zealand economy."