topic Re: Happy New Year from Australia Post in Selling

Happy New Year from Australia Post

dazzledayz — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 03:09:10 GMT

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.

Re: Happy New Year from Australia Post

joztamps — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 03:24:55 GMT

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.

Re: Happy New Year from Australia Post

dazzledayz — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 03:30:18 GMT

@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.

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.

Re: Happy New Year from Australia Post

heihachi_73 — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 11:18:29 GMT

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?

Re: Happy New Year from Australia Post

davewil1964 — Tue, 19 Nov 2019 11:37:18 GMT

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.

Re: Happy New Year from Australia Post

brerrabbit585 — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 05:24:00 GMT

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.

Re: Happy New Year from Australia Post

twyngwyn — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 05:34:08 GMT

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

Re: Happy New Year from Australia Post

davewil1964 — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 05:42:46 GMT

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.

Re: Happy New Year from Australia Post

justkidzbiz — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 12:55:07 GMT

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!

Re: Happy New Year from Australia Post

countessalmirena — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 13:02:43 GMT

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.

Re: Happy New Year from Australia Post

brerrabbit585 — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 13:03:02 GMT

Didn't you read the link that was provided? Prepaid C5s will be $2.52 if you buy 50 at a time. Current price for 50 is $2.30, so only 22c more. I bought my last lot just before they jumped from $1.80 to $2.30.

I use that size a lot because I can put more weight in them than the ordinary C5s. I won't be buying another 600, probably just 50, and only because I'm close to needing more anyway. No point stocking up to save 20c. I already charge $2.50 when I use them elsewhere (on ebay I cap postage at $2.50) so I won't have to change my postage until the next increase, and I hope to be out of selling by then!

I should have started buying prepaids a lot earlier than I did. When I started using them I almost didn't buy any C4s but it turns out I use a lot more of those than the B4s. I just had to learn to fold a different way to get the best fit.

Reg'd prepaid have only gone up 30c (bulk buying), which is less than 5%. C4s have gone up 30c and B4s 40c, but in bulk they're no dearer than sending for $5 + cost of envelope. I only ever use stamps on anything less than 125g - the rest I use prepaids.

My biggest problem will be using up the 3kg satchels I have, and possibly the 1kgs, but I only paid $12 & $9 for them so I can always use them instead of the next size down rather than buy new ones. I've got 101 x 3kg ebay satchels that I'll never use so I might have to find someone who uses them. I should have thought of it before this last lot of changes.

Re: Happy New Year from Australia Post

south.coffee — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 00:59:19 GMT

The 20mm letter thickness is a mechanical limit. The automated letter sort machines can only take a certain thickness. These machines read the envelope address and sort it accordingly down the correct chutes for each mail centre. If letters were semi hand sorted like parcels the cost and delivery time frame would be even higher.

You cannot expect much for a dollar these days and if you can exploit the large letters category, you are still way ahead of the parcel pricing.

Throw on a Priority sticker for extra 50 cents and the letter will reach the buyer faster than a parcel will.