Happy New Year from Australia Post

[dazzledayz]

As if the recent parcel rises weren't bad enough, AP is now raising letter prices from 2 Jan 2020:

AP 2020 letter pricing 

They have also, rather sneakily, reduced the 10 pack discount prices from 5% to 2.5% of single item x 10.

I'm almost certain they've done this with parcels as well in the latest updates.

It seems pricing increases aren't enough any more, they are reducing bulk discount rates to effectively increase their price rises beyond the obvious percentage increase.

Given that AP's only shareholder is the federal govt, it may be high time to start having a word with our federal MP's about the matter.

They'll say that as a privatised entity they have no control but that would suddenly prove to be not the case if they were threatened electorally.

[joztamps]

The Minister approves the increases after a report from the ACCC.

That's why the increase wasn't approved until after the election, even though AP was foreshadowing the need for an increase as far back as January/February.

[dazzledayz]

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@joztamps wrote:

The Minister approves the increases after a report from the ACCC.

That's why the increase wasn't approved until after the election, even though AP was foreshadowing the need for an increase as far back as January/February.

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The ministerial approval is, in their own words, a rubber stamp of the ACCC ruling and the minister couldn't possibly interfere.

Unless his neck was on the chopping block that is.

I wonder if the ACCC submission made much of trhe reduction in discount rates for bulk buys.

This would represent the majority of prepaid items sold and apply directly to small businesses.

[heihachi_73]

The letter price rise has been known for some time, and it's been 4 years since the last price hike. Coincidentally I bought a 20 pack of 2015 Wildflower stamps from an Australia Post vending machine just yesterday (the last price hike was in 2016 but the $1 stamps were issued prior to that to make up for demand).

As for the parcel increases, that's just Australia Post being what it truly is, a privately-owned for-profit entity that only shares its trade name with the government mail service. Throw in a near-monopoly status and they can do whatever they want without restraint; not many other parcel/courier/freight companies let people walk in off the street, plonk $8 or so down on the counter and send something across Australia without a business account or sending in bulk or per tonne (and even if they do, it's usually stupidly expensive even on very small items). Even Mailman is just a deal between Officeworks and Fastway. But yes, everyone knows that it shouldn't cost $9 to send a 40 gram parcel from one suburb to the next just because it's thicker than 2cm. Just thinking of it, imagine how much more money the letters service would make if large letters could be 3cm thick. People might even be able to send actual documents through the mail service! Currently it's impossible to send a >2cm thick book, a newspaper or a small ring binder full of paper documents through the mail service since they are inexplicably not counted as large letters, or as documents for that matter, thus the parcel service takes over. Given that there is no such thing as media mail under Australia Post (unlike for example USPS) there is no provision for actual documents (paper, digital media e.g. CDs/SD cards/USB sticks/hard drives, audio/video recordings etc.) to be sent as mail if the items are over 2cm thick. Australia Post is constantly saying that no-one is using the mail service anymore, is it any wonder when almost everything has to go as a parcel?

[davewil1964]

Back in the 60s there was such a thing as media postage. I haven't found any book later than that that states that it is registered as media for postage purposes.

So once upon a time, when the PMG was an actual service, books at least got preferential treatment. But the PMG didn't have ex-bank execs running it.

[brerrabbit585]

I can understand them reducing the discount for bulk buying. They'd know a lot of people stock up on prepaid envelopes and can be "paying" a discounted price years later. I bought at least 600 C5s when they were only $1.70 and $1.80, and I'm down to my last 30 now. Yes, I had to lay out the money ahead of time but I made a huge saving on them and AP gained absolutely nothing from it. I think we're lucky to get any sort of bulk discount at all.

[twyngwyn]

I bet you made more money than leaving the money in the bank 🙂 Did the same myself

[davewil1964]

Yup.

Not that many, but I'm stocking up now and hope to be able to afford enough to last me well into next year. I can't see C5s going up by less than 25c and probably more.

[justkidzbiz]

Now, if we can just get AP to provide a decent service now that they are throwing in another price rise!!

letter sent from Rowville, Vic to Ashwood Vic (all of about 25 mins away) took 11 business days to be delivered 😡😡 and that’s just one of many constantly delayed!

[countessalmirena]

I have had similar delivery timeframes in some instances (a few years ago now), as well as everything that I posted in one particular yellow mailbox vanish completely in the ether. The latter (express letters that simply vanished and which were never scanned) was more recent.