Australia Post eParcel service outage frustrates customers … Burritos to be delivered by drone in NSW … Former banker appointed ASIC chairman

Australia Post’s online eParcel tracking and shipping service was brought down due to “infrastructure issues” yesterday, reports Fairfax, leaving small business customers unable to print parcel labels or track and coordinate parcels.

The issues began at 3pm on Monday afternoon, and had still not been resolved by 10pm that night. Numbers of customers took to social media to complain about the outage, and question how long the systems would be down for.

@auspost This error isnt that helpful when I have a bunch of parcels I am trying to ship!! pic.twitter.com/CKslgoGbZZ

— Chris Ronnie (@themacboy) October 16, 2017

In a statement on its website, Australia Post notified customers it had resolved the issues this morning, saying “we have successfully restored all impacted services overnight”.

“Customers will now be able to access all Australia Post services and products online and in post offices this morning. We apologise for any inconvenience caused,” the mail carrier said.

Burritos to be delivered by drone

Australian Mexican restaurant chain Guzman y Gomez has partnered with Google subsidiary Project Wing to trial drone deliveries of food to customers on the border of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.

“Guzman y Gomez will be cooking, packing and loading its delicious Mexican food onto Wing’s delivery drone, which will be delivered to paying customers several kilometres away,” the company said in a statement.

Customers keen to get some airdropped burritos need to use the Project Wing mobile application. The company has also partnered with Chemist Warehouse to deliver customer orders, the company said in its blog post.

“The information we gather from both of these test partners will help us build a system so that merchants of all kinds can focus on what they’re good at — like making food or helping people feel healthier — rather than being distracted by complex delivery logistics,” the company said.

Source: Supplied

Former banker to replace Greg Medcraft as ASIC chairman

Former Goldman Sachs banker James Shipton has been appointed as the new Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) chairman, after outgoing chairman Greg Medcraft announced his retirement as of November 12, reports the ABC.

“Mr Shipton brings wide regulatory and financial market knowledge to the position, as well as international experience,” said Financial Services Minister Kelly O’Dwyer.

“I look forward to Mr Shipton making a significant contribution to the important work of ASIC in promoting confidence in Australia’s financial system and protecting consumer interests as the incoming chair.”

After announcing his appointment, Shipton said he intends ASIC to be a “strong, proactive, efficient, innovative and strategic regulator”. Shipton begins his role in February.

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