Australia Post charging handling fee for courier delivery

[johanne6348]

I live in a remote location and we only have deliveries three times a week. There is no way a courier could get here. If I use my postal address I receive a card in the mailbox and am forced to drive a round trip of twenty kilometers to collect my parcel, which is a waste of time and petrol.  Recently I was pleased to sign up with Australia Post's free parcel collect service so I could pick up parcels in a town where I do my weekly shopping.  How convenient. This week I bought an item from Ebay with free delivery.  The PO rang and told me that my parcel had arrived and because it had come via courier and not Australia Post they would charge me a $7 handling fee.  We live and learn.  

[cherry*135 · Accepted solution]

If a courier company that is not part of Australia Post delivers the parcel to the AP Parcel Lockers there is a fee.The courier company has to pay the fee, therefore it is passed onto the customer receiving the parcel.

If the parcel comes by post or by a courier company affiliated with Australia Post there is no fee.

Is the fee of $7 less than it would cost you in petrol to drive a round trip of 20km's?

AP Parcel Lockers Terms & Conditons:

While there are currently no fees and charges for use of the Parcel Lockers service, in the future this position may be revisited.

Please note: Australia Post will accept domestic and international parcels from other carriers to our Parcel Locker locations, if those parcels have been lodged by the carriers as Australia Post articles addressed to the recipient's Parcel Locker address. To lodge parcels into our network, carriers must pay Australia Post for the service. StarTrack is a subsidiary of Australia Post, and parcels carried by StarTrack will be accepted for delivery to Parcel Locker locations.

We have informed other carriers of our policy and it is up to the carrier to decide if they wish to pay to deliver to the Parcel Locker location.

Where possible, customers are advised to check which shipping partners or parcel delivery provider(s) are available on the website they're buying from.

[johanne6348]

Thanks for clarifying this - good to know about StarTrack. I will be checking in future.

[babylonfuture]

Should be noted that not all parcels sent via Star Track will be accepted.. If item is sent via the overnight service (eg, parcel bags) - no problem. If item is sent via Road than it MAY NOT be accepted at an Australia Post outlet (will depend how they are feeling on the day, how much room they have available etc to receive).

How do I know this? At my 'day job' We deal with Star Track and have been advised of this.. hopefully in time it will improve.

[lyndal1838]

A bit more detail would be good.....most StarTrack parcels are delivered by road. 

Are you referring to pallet sized deliveries?

[babylonfuture]

No, just normal sized parcels - like a computer case as an example. Pallet would more than likely get refused (post office prob have no room to put it).
As a side note, if we send out a overnight satchel via startrack for a local address (if it leaves WA - no problems).. it generally gets lost or has some issue - if we send via StarTrack road freight.. no issues.... go figure!