Inside Auckland's 'gamechanging' new postal sorting facility

A massive new sorting facility in south Auckland aims to supercharge New Zealand's postal service and catch illegal drugs more often.

Inside the new Auckland Processing Centre, a customs officer was inspecting two bags filled to bursting with what she believed was methamphetamine.

Typically a daunting task, but new state of the art equipment had her working faster than ever.

Using a new x-ray powered 3D scanner, she could quickly compare the suspicious packages with another bag already confirmed to contain meth.

Reading the scans on a nearby monitor, customs technical specialist Braden Harris said it was a match.

"The x-rays work off moisture and density, and we actually have two that look very similar so inside this package is actually two lots of methamphetamine," he said.

"So the officer has actually proven it's methamphetamine using the first offender, and we can confirm there's actually two bags of methamphetamine in this package."

Around the corner, another officer was sorting through a shipment of ketamine.

Harris said the new technology made a world of difference.

"[Previously] it was an extremely manual operation, so an officer would have to be out at the mail belt at the right time looking at the right things," he explained.

"Now, with this 3D technology, as well as our data we're able to use, it's a bit of a game changer for customs that's for sure."

Customs occupied just one corner of the massive new facility in Wiri, a stone's throw from the Auckland International Airport, where hundreds of thousands of parcels were being sorted and shipped.

The Auckland Processing Centre first opened for domestic parcels last month, but now it's fully operational. The occasion was marked with a bronze plaque and a round of applause from ministers and key stakeholders.

NZ Post chief executive David Walsh said the new facility had more than double the capacity of the old one, which sorted 13,000 parcels per hour.

"It's about four or five rugby fields in size, and it can process up to 30,000 parcels an hour," he said.

"E-commerce has been growing for many, many years, and internationally that's a trend that just continues... That's why these facilities are so important."

He said it was a game changer for staff, though customers wouldn't notice much difference.

"We've got a very reliable network already, and this is to ensure we can maintain that quality of service," he said.

"But most importantly, as New Zealanders buy more online, we want to make sure we can maintain that service as growth comes, this facility will help us do that."

MPI's Biosecurity NZ Commissioner for the North Island, Mike Inglis, said the new facility modernised the customs process while improving the capacity for e-commerce.

"What this facility does is bring the latest technology together, allows us to work with offshore partners too to make sure we're focusing our resource efficiently, making sure we're stopping things coming into the country and at the same time growing the economy," he said.

Though it hadn't come cheap.

"From an overall factor, this is part of our $200 million investment from NZ Post across their whole system, but we also have to make sure we're using taxpayers money correctly too, looking at a levy, making sure we're not putting excessive amounts of staff in, to make sure that efficiency's there."

Minister for State-Owned Enterprises Simeon Brown expected NZ Post to justify that expense.

"Taxpayers are going to expect a return on this investment, and that's a very clear message that I have for the New Zealand Post board," he said.

"It's ultimately the customers that are critically important to the success of this investment."

Expectations set high, and it was NZ Post's job, as always, to deliver.

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