Australia Post says it will not pick up parcels from e-commerce retailers in NSW, Victoria and the ACT for four days beginning this weekend.

Post offices will remain open, deliveries will continue and post boxes will also continue to be cleared.

But AusPost collections from retailers in the three states will pause for four days from 7:00am on Saturday to 7:00am Tuesday September 7. 

The temporary pause is designed to ease stress on the system to a "safe and manageable level".

The organisation processed a record volume of mail in August due to COVID lockdowns across the country.

AusPost said it delivered more parcels last month than during the Christmas period last year.

The organisation also has 500 staff in self-isolation as a result of the COVID-19 outbreaks in the three states.

AusPost executive general manager Gary Starr told ABC Radio Melbourne that recent flight restrictions and temporary facility closures had also put pressure on the network.

“While the network is working pretty well, we’re finding that we have 500 people a day roughly in isolation, less flights, zoning and split shifts in our facilities to make sure we keep our people safe — and of course closures from time to time when a facility does have a COVID case."

People who have ordered for Father's Day in "plenty of time" had a "good chance" to get their delivery by the weekend – but also acknowledged there was "already some delay" over the network, he said.

He said businesses would not receive compensation for the pause.

"We're not looking at compensation given that we'll continue to process parcels and deliver them, and we'll start picking up again from Tuesday," he said.

"[Businesses] will be able to take orders from the customers and prepare [for the week ahead].

"We're not stopping the delivery – just the collection for ecommerce customers."

Services provided for Express Post, Premium, Startrack Express and letters will also remain unchanged.

Last week, the business announced a hiring blitz of more than 4,000 new staff to cope with additional services prompted by high demand.

Weekend deliveries will continue until the end of the year. 

AusPost estimates that up to 500,000 parcels will delivered every weekend until Christmas.