Australia Post says it will introduce after-dark delivery services and extended trading hours to cope with its busiest Christmas period on record.

The company said parcel demand had increased and the volumes in December were likely to surpass last year’s record 52 million parcels.

To cope with that demand twilight deliveries have been introduced in Melbourne and Perth.

Other cities will have increased morning capability during peak period. Weekend deliveries are happening across the country.

It will also extend trading hours from November 27 in more than 380 post offices across the country. The hours may vary by retail outlet but will continue until December 23.

Rod Barnes from Australia Post said the new services were a way to ensure parcels were delivered on time.

"In the last few weeks, we have recruited almost 300 drivers specifically to hit the roads after hours across Melbourne and Perth," he said.

"We expect our twilight service to help us deliver an additional 25,000 parcels per day in these two cities alone, so if you hear one of our drivers roll up perhaps just as you’re getting home, don’t be surprised."

Mr Barnes said the company had also increased its capacity in other areas, including chartering extra planes, putting more vehicles on the road, recruiting more than 5,000 new staff, and opening new facilities to manage the volume. 

Australia Post recorded 5.7 million households shopping online in October alone, thanks to COVID lockdowns across the country.

That figure is up almost 15 per cent on the previous year.

However, the industry is facing a pre-Christmas parcel delivery crunch, after global delivery giant FedEx locked workers out of its Sydney distribution centre as part of an escalating industrial dispute on Monday.

Earlier this year, thousands of workers from Toll and Australia Post's parcel subsidiary StarTrack went on strike.

Those companies have recently reached new enterprise bargaining agreements (EBAs) with their workers, bringing an end to strike action.

FedEx is the last major delivery and logistics firm currently in dispute with the TWU over a new EBA.