Australia Post mail Discounts -- Is it available?

I've been trolling the Aust Post web site trying to find out if there are any realistic ways of obtaining postage discount.

It seems unless you are a large business then you have no hope. Even then it may be around 2.5% discount.

 

Just mailing out 20 large letters per day gets you nothing it seems. You have to pay full tote odds.

 

Even if you are a pensioner or health care card holder you get to buy a maximum of 50 stamps per year at 60-cents instead of 70-cents. Big deal. WoW! $5 discount per year.

 

I've seen some kind of machines you must be able to hire or buy (maybe??) but don't seem to be able to understand the requirements to have/operate one of these. They must be able to generate postage paid stickers for your envelopes. But I suspect you need to be sending out something like 500+ items per day to qualify for these.

 

Anyone have any better knowledge than I on this area of business?

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Australia Post mail Discounts -- Is it available?


@clarry100 wrote:

 

 

I've seen some kind of machines you must be able to hire or buy (maybe??) but don't seem to be able to understand the requirements to have/operate one of these. They must be able to generate postage paid stickers for your envelopes. But I suspect you need to be sending out something like 500+ items per day to qualify for these.

 

 


You have to apply for a license to use a postage meter, but I don't know about any specific requirements (there doesn't seem to be volume requirements, anyway).

 

They look to me more like cost and/or time-saving devices for things other than actual postage costs, to be honest. I see hire charges for a machine start from around $10 a week (not sure about purchasing one outright, but Pitney Bowes supplies them.... )

 

At $10.00 a week hire, you'd need to be spending more than $400 a week on postage before the 2.5% rebate could actually save you any outgoing costs, and that's not taking into consideration any other associated expenses with operating one (which I'm sure there probably are).

 

Here's the AP guide for them, anyway: http://auspost.com.au/media/documents/Postage-meter-service-guide.pdf

 

 

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Australia Post mail Discounts -- Is it available?

I think you are referring to a franking machine - don't know if they even use them these days.

 

No you can't borrow or hire one.

 

You must be a registered business.

Have an AP business account.

You must also prepay all postage which gets added to the machines memory and reduces as you frank the mail.  Don't know off hand how much it is but 20years ago it was $500 credit minimum so its probably $2,000 in todays money.

 

Discounts were minimal.

 

On an AP business account you use to only get discounted postage if you were bulk posting the same amount of letters (minimum 100) - all items had to be identical in thickness.

 

There were no discounts for parcel post.

 

These days its "e-parcels" and AP require a certain amount of parcels poer month.

 

Best enquire with AP about your needs and what is available.  Bulk ordering prepaid envelopes and satchels gets you discounts.

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Australia Post mail Discounts -- Is it available?


@sparrow2207 wrote:

I think you are referring to a franking machine - don't know if they even use them these days.

 

No you can't borrow or hire one.

 

 


This was the info I was trying to supply, twice now my posts have ninja-ed themseves into invisibility. o_O

 

But, they now have a device called postage meters, you can hire them (or buy them), and I didn't see any mention of specific requirements other than having to apply for a license to use one, and they can be used with or without a business account (not saying that there aren't any specific requirements like volume, just that I haven't seen any mentioned).

 

Hire costs look like they start from $10 a week, and based on that cost alone, you'd need to be spending more than $400 a week on postage before you could even begin to save on outgoing costs via the 2.5% rebate on postage. (My guess is they're better for time-saving / labour costs for most businesses)

 

I don't know why my posts skedaddled, so I won't mention the infamous company who has the same initials as Peanut Butter, and who happens to be able to supply the meters (along with others), nor will I include the link to the postage meter guide from Australia Post, just in case either one of these was causing issues..., but you can easily find more info by googling postage meter guide etc 

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Australia Post mail Discounts -- Is it available?

20 letters a say is very very small business to Aust Post

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~~ ~~ ~~ Those who do right, have nothing to fear.
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Australia Post mail Discounts -- Is it available?


@clarry100 wrote:

 

 

I've seen some kind of machines you must be able to hire or buy (maybe??) but don't seem to be able to understand the requirements to have/operate one of these. They must be able to generate postage paid stickers for your envelopes. But I suspect you need to be sending out something like 500+ items per day to qualify for these.

 

 


You have to apply for a license to use a postage meter, but I don't know about any specific requirements (there doesn't seem to be volume requirements, anyway).

 

They look to me more like cost and/or time-saving devices for things other than actual postage costs, to be honest. I see hire charges for a machine start from around $10 a week (not sure about purchasing one outright, but Pitney Bowes supplies them.... )

 

At $10.00 a week hire, you'd need to be spending more than $400 a week on postage before the 2.5% rebate could actually save you any outgoing costs, and that's not taking into consideration any other associated expenses with operating one (which I'm sure there probably are).

 

Here's the AP guide for them, anyway: http://auspost.com.au/media/documents/Postage-meter-service-guide.pdf

 

 

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Australia Post mail Discounts -- Is it available?

I had a post here, it was definitely here, I saw it!

 

I'll wait for a bit to see if it reappears before typing out all the same stuff again. Smiley LOL

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Australia Post mail Discounts -- Is it available?

Ok, guess it's gone ninja on me.

 

Quick summary - you need a license to operate a postage meter, but I'm not sure about specific requirements. I haven't seen any mention of volume requirements.

 

Hire costs seemingly start from around $10 per week, and based on that you would need to be spending more than $400 a week on postage to actually save on any outgoing costs via the 2.5% rebate (not taking into consideration other operating costs, which there probably are) - no idea what they might cost to buy outright, so no idea how much money on postage it might take before one paid for itself via postage savings, so I think their value is more in time / labour / cost saving in areas other actual postage costs. 

 

Pitney Bowes is one of the suppliers of the machines... (not wholly necessary to include....again....but I wanted to. :D)

 

AP guide on postage meters: http://auspost.com.au/media/documents/postage-meter-service-guide-jun14.pdf

 

 

 

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Australia Post mail Discounts -- Is it available?

What the?

 

Ok, this isn't funny. Why are my replies (the actual helpful ones) disappearing 10 seconds after I post them?

 

Is it because I mention the PB thing, in a total non-GSP way? o_O

 

Please explain. Smiley Frustrated

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Australia Post mail Discounts -- Is it available?

I think you are referring to a franking machine - don't know if they even use them these days.

 

No you can't borrow or hire one.

 

You must be a registered business.

Have an AP business account.

You must also prepay all postage which gets added to the machines memory and reduces as you frank the mail.  Don't know off hand how much it is but 20years ago it was $500 credit minimum so its probably $2,000 in todays money.

 

Discounts were minimal.

 

On an AP business account you use to only get discounted postage if you were bulk posting the same amount of letters (minimum 100) - all items had to be identical in thickness.

 

There were no discounts for parcel post.

 

These days its "e-parcels" and AP require a certain amount of parcels poer month.

 

Best enquire with AP about your needs and what is available.  Bulk ordering prepaid envelopes and satchels gets you discounts.

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Australia Post mail Discounts -- Is it available?


@sparrow2207 wrote:

I think you are referring to a franking machine - don't know if they even use them these days.

 

No you can't borrow or hire one.

 

 


This was the info I was trying to supply, twice now my posts have ninja-ed themseves into invisibility. o_O

 

But, they now have a device called postage meters, you can hire them (or buy them), and I didn't see any mention of specific requirements other than having to apply for a license to use one, and they can be used with or without a business account (not saying that there aren't any specific requirements like volume, just that I haven't seen any mentioned).

 

Hire costs look like they start from $10 a week, and based on that cost alone, you'd need to be spending more than $400 a week on postage before you could even begin to save on outgoing costs via the 2.5% rebate on postage. (My guess is they're better for time-saving / labour costs for most businesses)

 

I don't know why my posts skedaddled, so I won't mention the infamous company who has the same initials as Peanut Butter, and who happens to be able to supply the meters (along with others), nor will I include the link to the postage meter guide from Australia Post, just in case either one of these was causing issues..., but you can easily find more info by googling postage meter guide etc 

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Australia Post mail Discounts -- Is it available?

You get a 10% discount on prepaid envelopes in lots of 50; 5% in 10s

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Australia Post mail Discounts -- Is it available?

All I know about franking machines/postage meters (same thing)  is when I had to lug the thing to the post office to get more credit added.  Yes the company did not own the machine we leased it from AP - it got upgraded every 18months free of charge as technology changed.  Minimum lease period was 18 months with 12 month renewal after that.

 

The op needs to have a conversation withn AP direct to find out options.

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