AUSTRALIA POST: No more signatures required for overseas registered items.

[sydney-diecast-kingdom]

So for those of you who don't already know I work for Aussie Post.

Today one of the delivery managers addressed over 400 of us at a regular meeting and informed us that as of today:

"Posties and parcel contractors will no longer be required to get a signature from a customer when delivering an overseas registered item".

After the cheers had died down there was a lot of head scratching as to why this was the case. Funnily enough nobody bothered to ask why. 

Items will still be scanned on delivery but just no signature required. I wonder if people sending signature items from overseas are aware of this? I also wondered if this will be eventually reciprocated in other countries.  

Just letting my fellow eBay nutters in on what's going down.

[allfixelectrical]

Perhaps if Aust Post charged overseas postal organisations a realistic figure to deliver their articles within Australia insead of in many cases practically delivering them for free or at the very least, cheaper than local domestic postage rates, then there would both be more money available to pay more staff to do the job and also less cheap postage items coming in from the likes of Hong Kong & China in the first place.

That might also mean that our local delivery rates are not jacked up to the max to subsidise such deliveries.

There is something horribly wrong when you can order a small cheap item thicker than 20mm from China for $1 - $3 all up sometimes even including signature on delivery post when it costs at least $7.45 to send by regular post & over $10 minimum to send by signature on delivery in Australia to your next door neighbour.

[lyndal1838]

That will never happen.

Australia is a signatory to the international postal agreement and they cannot add any firther charges to mail from overseas, just as other countries cannot charge more to deliver mail from Australia

[sydney-diecast-kingdom · Accepted solution]

AUS POST UPDATE

We noticed that in the last couple of days some of the international registered items came up on our scanners as requiring a signature. As usual there was confusion and a lot of head scratching.

Today we were all called to a meeting where we were officially informed that as of today:

ALL OVERSEAS REGISTERED SIGNATURE ITEMS WILL AGAIN REQUIRE A SIGNATURE.  

I did enquire as to why there had been a backflip and as to why the change had been made in the first place but was met with some shoulder shrugging. I was told that they had received an email from head office in Melbourne that wasn't accompanied by any explaination.

This should be good news for most.   

[5kazam]

And so it should be. Doesn't matter where the article is coming from.

If someone has paid for that service, then it has to happen.

[digital*ghost]

Thanks for the update 🙂 I'm relieved to hear that, TBH (just in case anyone was curious, I never received any replies to my queries). 

[*tippy*toes*]

All my recent overseas purchases requiring a signature were all signed for. I was carded for some and had to sign to get them at the PO. I was also home to take possession of a few and a signature was required to get them too. Maybe it hadn't filtered out into the sticks yet!

[zanadoo_56]

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@sydney-diecast-kingdom wrote:

AUS POST UPDATE

We noticed that in the last couple of days some of the international registered items came up on our scanners as requiring a signature. As usual there was confusion and a lot of head scratching.

Today we were all called to a meeting where we were officially informed that as of today:

ALL OVERSEAS REGISTERED SIGNATURE ITEMS WILL AGAIN REQUIRE A SIGNATURE.  

I did enquire as to why there had been a backflip and as to why the change had been made in the first place but was met with some shoulder shrugging. I was told that they had received an email from head office in Melbourne that wasn't accompanied by any explaination.

This should be good news for most.   

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Drat.  Knew it was too good to be true.

I was hoping to use the policy change as leverage to convince OS sellers of $5 items (or less) from insisting on using registered mail.  Don't get me wrong, happy to pay for tracking but collecting registered parcels is the bane of my lfe.

[lyndal1838]

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@digital*ghost wrote:

Thanks for the update 🙂 I'm relieved to hear that, TBH (just in case anyone was curious, I never received any replies to my queries). 

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I'll let you in on a little secret Digi.....StarTrack and AP drivers are not given answers when they question new rules and policies.  And they ask face to face.

I am not surprised that emails are not answered.

[digital*ghost]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

I'll let you in on a little secret Digi.....StarTrack and AP drivers are not given answers when they question new rules and policies.  And they ask face to face.

I am not surprised that emails are not answered.

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I wasn't either unfortunately, as it wasn't the first time I've made a query with AP and got no response, but I have to say I was disappointed I didn't get a reply from the UPU.