AUSTRALIA POST CHARGING MORE & MORE & GIVING LESS AND LESS

[agrademechanic]

HARD TO BELIEVE A~P~  is owned by all of us taxpayers as it's owned by the Aust Fed Govt and yet they still

have the audacity to pay EACH of the FAT CATS MILLIONS OF DOLLARS in Salaries and Bonuses, at the cost to all Aussies, some of which can ill-afford Parcel Prices which are "OFF THE SCALE", while theyre trying to keep their business viable ANTIME, let alone this disastrous last 12 month period of COVID19.

Charges keep rising exponentially whilst services and weight-thresholds keep coming down; thanks A~P~

.............  Right in the middle of Covid19 when charges should be REDUCED and weight-thesholds lifted

You have to wonder why anything you buy on ebay from China comes for $1 to $10 Postage, AND in half the time to send same parcel from Melbourne to Queensland or Perth !  ............  and $10 to $40 for postage charge from A~P~ to ensure the FATCATS don't suffer at any Salary reduction; oh dear, we couldnt have that could we !

I'd love to REALLY vent my spleen on these lovely people at A~P~ , but I fear "thou dost protest too much" syndrome may kick in, and A~P~ will get "floated" as an IPO on the Stock Exchange, and the situation will emulate our Gas & Fuel Corp and SEC which were reasonable in charges when compared to the over-charging sh+t-fight we have been experiencing since they were sold off from our Taxpayer ownership, many decades ago.

I'd like to think I'd have time to write a book just on what I have proof of, of the scams, fraud and injustices bestowed on us all at the hands of  Aust Post, Telstra, NBN, et al, but knowing most of us know exactly and suffered what that book would reveal, causes me to refrain, lest it be a complete waste of precious time.

ALL the local Metro Red street boxes in Frankston-Seaford in Melbourne, have "POST BY 12 MIDDAY" as of a year ago, compared to 6pm prior to that. I assume the rest of Melb metro is the same ?

On a positive note, the 50c "Priority Stamp" seems to be the best value-for-money for urgent letters, which can be up to 20mm thick and 500g in weight, where speed is essential, similar to "Express Parcels" 

[digital*ghost · Accepted solution]

Priority was suspended almost a year ago now, and will be reviewed for re-introduction in a couple of months. 

One of the reasons it was suspended is flight availability - to say flight availability dropped significantly when covid hit is kind of an understatement. It's the same reason the next-day guarantee for express was also suspended, because a much lower percentage of mail can travel by plane now, and mail that does needs to be prioritised appropriately; which is not mail that has a 50c priority stamp on it, but stuff like medicine and medical equipment, PPE, and so on. 

There's a few reasons Australia has done so well with covid, one of them is the practices put into place by businesses who had workers who were considered essential, Aus Post is one of those businesses that provided essential services, but of course they have to implement social distancing measures, at a time when demand for mail services increased to never before seen levels - it is impossible to maintain the standards we had under those conditions.

They actually did much better for their customers than so many other postal systems, if you care to look at more than just AP for a few minutes. Yes, they suspended priority and only started delivering letter mail every second day, yes, they got rid of the option for international letter mail with merchandise (and I'm not trying to downplay the impact that had on small businesses, it's been devastating), and also suspended economy options for international mail, but at least their prices for basic services didn't increase by 500%, plus multiple surcharges on top (which is what DHL did with their ecommerce division - base rate jumped from around $3 for a small, light untracked package, to nearly $16 for the same package, plus emergency surcharge, currency exchange surcharge, RACA surcharge, which AP have to do too, but don't charge extra for, plus increased their pick-up fee from $10 to $30). 

AP absolutely do not do everything right, and there is a lot to be critical of them about, but a little insight into what they have had to adjust to the last year should at least provide a little more perspective for exactly where and how that criticism should be directed - it's definitely not on the temporary withdrawal of priority. 

[porcelain_dolls_by_me]

I often wonder why, with the abundance of idle jumbo aircraft Qantas has, why AusPost does not increase their charter of sole purpose (freight) flights to (say) the USA.

A 747 freighter can carry over 100 tonnes of freight and at around the AusPost charge of $20 per kg that would be over $2 million income generate by packages on the flight.   A multiple of several times what it would cost to operate the flight.

There would of course be revenue on the return flight.

[twyngwyn]

[digital*ghost]

Passenger planes can't really be compared to cargo planes - they can be completely similar in most ways, but being ultimately designed for a specific purpose can make a huge difference, and from what I can tell, most passenger planes have half the carrying capacity or less.

Some airlines have converted passenger planes to keep them going, but they can't use the space the same way a dedicated freight plane can, and I think most of them carry priority goods rather than regular mail  / parcels.

If there were profit in it for both companies, it would have been done, I suspect.