News

Dear valued customer

Due to a weather related road closure on SH8 (Lindis Pass) overnight, there will be delays of up to 6 hours with deliveries into Central Otago today.

Areas affected are as follows;

Queenstown

Wanaka

Cromwell

Clyde

Alexandra

Roxburgh

The road is now open and we will do our best to complete all deliveries scheduled for today. We will send an updated notice if there are any further disruptions to service.

Please refrain from requesting ETA’s for deliveries into these areas, and advise your customers accordingly.

We expect to be back on normal schedule on Thursday the 8^th of July, subject to weather conditions. We apologise for these unavoidable delays and thank you for your patience.

Dear Valued Customer,

Adverse Weather conditions are continuing to disrupt Interisland ferry services with no sailings operating from Wellington to Picton or vice versa at this time.

The latest information we have received is that Cook Strait ferry services will most likely resume late evening tonight (Wednesday 30^th June) subject to sea conditions. Once sailings do resume it will take more than 48 hours to clear the back log of Interisland freight dispatched from each Island across Monday and Tuesday. All Interisland deliveries will be delayed by up to 72 hours. This means freight collected on Wednesday the 30^th June and Thursday 1^st July may not be delivered until Monday the 5^th of July.

We will be working hard to clear the back log of deliveries as soon as possible, and we will provide further updates across the next 24 hours. Please contact your customers to advise of these delays and refrain from requesting ETA’s for Interisland freight. We will notify customers as soon as we have some definite schedules.

We apologise in advance for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

Dear Valued Customer,

The Government has announced that from 11.59PM Tuesday 29^th June 2021 that the Wellington region will move to Alert Level 1.

Accordingly, Big Chill advises that the following service changes will apply from 11.59PM Tuesday 29^th June 2021.

Wellington Region - Level 1 – Big Chill Response:

• All services in Wellington, Kapiti Coast and the Wairarapa revert back to normal.

Please note there may be further changes to services if Government COVID-19 response levels change at any time.

Dear valued customer,

Due to heavy snow fall in the lower South Island overnight there are several road closures on the state highways into Otago, Central Otago and Southland. This has affected all freight collected on Monday the 28^th of June in Christchurch and Timaru for delivery to the following areas;

Southland – Invercargill, Balclutha, Gore, Te Anau, Bluff, Winton and surrounding areas.

Otago – Dunedin, Milton, Palmerston, Mosgiel, Lawrence and surrounding areas.

Central Otago – Queenstown, Wanaka, Cromwell, Clyde, Alexandra, Roxburgh, Ranfurly, Omarama and surrounding areas.

These deliveries will be delayed by at least 24 hours. In addition to this, all freight collected in Dunedin and Invercargill on Monday the 28^th of June for delivery out of town will also be delayed by at least 24 hours.

At this stage we expect the roads to reopen mid-morning which may allow some deliveries into the main centres although this is not guaranteed. Please ensure your customers are advised of these unavoidable delays as soon as possible. We thank you for your patience and we will work hard to move your freight as soon as possible. There will likely be ongoing delays throughout the week as we clear the back log. Further updates will be provided as more information comes to hand from NZTA.

Thank you for your understanding.

Dear Valued Customer,

Due to adverse weather conditions, all Interisland ferry services will be suspended from this afternoon 28^th June until further notice. At this stage Sailings are expected to resume some time on Wednesday the 30^th June 2021.

This will affect all freight traveling between the North and South Islands (in both directions) from Monday the 28^th of June. We expect there will be delays of at least 24 to 48 hours through to the end of the week (Sunday 4^th July).

Please also note the weather will likely affect road conditions in the South Island and the Lower North Island (including the Desert Rd). If there are road closures caused by this weather, there may be significant delays with freight traveling within the islands across our network. We will update and advise as more information comes to hand.

We strongly recommend shippers to notify customers of the Interisland delays and potential Intra-island delays. We also urge customers to factor in these delays into their supply chains this week.

The service delays will create a back log of volume that will take some time to clear. We appreciate your patience while we work through these unavoidable delays.

Thank you for your understanding.

Dear Valued Customer,

With the announcement that the Government will move to Alert Level-2 within the Wellington region (including Kapiti Coast & Wairarapa) until 11.59PM Sunday 27^th June 2021, with all other regions remaining at Alert Level-1, Big Chill Distribution advises that the following changes will be made to services.

The disciplines and processes Big Chill Distribution has previously implemented as an essential service will continue at this time. This is for the safety of our customers, our staff and receivers.

With the Wellington region now at Alert Level-2 we advise that the following service changes apply until further advised:

LEVEL 2 (Wellington Region) - Big Chill Response:

• Contactless pick-up and delivery processes are reinstated as standard.
• Normal Big Chill delivery services will be supplied to all commercial delivery points that are open under Government approved rules for Level-2.
• Saturday services to Supermarkets and Service Stations only. Strictly enforced.
• Customer drop-offs (contactless) at Big Chill depots allowed, but only between 1000-1400hrs Mon-Fri.
• Customer pick-ups (contactless) from Big Chill depots allowed, but only between 1000-1400hrs.
• Big Chill will not commit to achieving pre-existing service levels at this time given likely volume spikes.

Outside of the Wellington region, all services remain as normal.

Thank you for your patience & understanding.

Dear Valued Customer,

For the Winter period, effective from 6th April 2021, our service levels for the MacKenzie region will change from current schedule Monday, Wednesday and Friday to Tuesday and Friday only

The towns affected by this run change are:

Fairlie

Tekapo

Twizel

Omarama

Otematata

Kurow

Please advise all customers and / or suppliers that may be affected by this change.

Thank you for your understanding.

Dear Valued Customer,

In recent months Big Chill has seen deliveries being consigned for business addresses that are non-food retailers, food service, food manufacturers, QSR or restaurants entering our network.

Big Chill understands that the development of this market has been a result of the COVID19 event.

Big Chill will not pick up or deliver to any residential addresses (even if it is operating as a food manufacturer).

Some shippers are asking for deliveries to business addresses for what are online sales or destined direct for the consumer (B2C).

These type of non-commercial and residential deliveries are NOT currently part of the Big Chill service offering.

For orders/consignments of this nature Big Chill recommends that a courier service be utilised.

It is important that we focus our delivery efforts on standard food delivery points as we enter the busiest period of the year. As such these type of non-commercial & residential deliveries are not permitted to enter the Big Chill network at this time.

Finally, If you have any new delivery locations that are not already setup and operating then please ensure that you communicate these directly to your sales representative where they will be reviewed and confirmed back as acceptable or not achievable.