Australia Post tracking idea. Feedback sought from sellers.

[offroad7400]

Reposting this idea from bekb a member of the Australia Post Community Forums. Please add your thoughts, Pro's - Con's.

With the increase in demand for Tracking & products available for small businesses & working from home. Is Aus Post working on an app for Senders to Scan their own products against Barcoded Street Boxes? ie. Item dropped at xxxx Box 26/05/2020 10:59AM ?

On every Red, Yellow post box and mail slots at Post Offices, display a QR code with encoded identification and location data.

1. Using Australia Post MyPost, customers and sellers pay and print postage labels for their parcels.

2. Take parcels to a post box.

3. Open Australia Post app on phone and login to MyPost.

4. Scan QR code on post box.

5. Scan QR code on parcel label for lodgement receipt.

6. Place parcels in post box.

This lodgement process was a feature of the Self Serve Kiosks in Post Offices but never implemented and takes it one step further to street level. For trusted sellers it would be very helpful and convenient, saving lots of time waiting in queues. It also adds an extra scan between the street post box and the Post Office or Mail Centre, the next leg in delivery (think theft).

Self lodgement brings automation and after hours service to the postal network and the cost to roll this feature out is not enormous and uses a lot of existing services.

https://community.auspost.com.au/s/question/0D72v000005TN6M/with-the-increase-in-demand-for-tracking...

[tazzieterror]

What problem is it meant to solve?

[digital*ghost]

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@offroad7400 wrote:

This lodgement process was a feature of the Self Serve Kiosks in Post Offices

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I can only speak for how it worked at my PO, but if I used one of those things to lodge parcels, I still had to have a member of staff come over to the terminal and manually approve the lodgements before I could be given a lodgement receipt and the status of the packages would shift to lodged (they also ensured I was no longer able to access them, either by putting it in the chute, or taking back behind the counter - I know the regular staff trust me implicity as we have a solid and friendly relationship, and they know I'm the type to point out to them if they undercharge me even 50c lol, but they have regulations to follow and once they have accepted a package, I'm technically not allowed to do anything else to it, so there are regulatory and potentiallly legal ramefications to having a package status as lodged (i.e. "accepted") when it can't be unequivocally confirmed. 

This would only work in real terms if A) there were express post street boxes as well as regular ones at the same locations (where I am, they are exclusively located outside of post offices), and B) no lodgement receipts issued at all until the parcels have been officially scanned and confirmed as received by Aus Post - much like tracking works now, but with the addition of a small 'person was recently located near a post box and has indicated they put your parcel in it' notification / assurance to the intended recipient. 

Personally, I'd rather go straight to the futuristic street box that can scan a barcode itself as you lodge a package, makes the package irretrievable once the barcode has been scanned / verified, then spits out lodgement receipts, lol. 

[lm-entertainment]

while i love the concept, it seems like this would be open to abuse - because people could scan their item and the QR code and then not actually post it? there'd be countless problems for australia post with items supposedly being in their system but them being unable to locate them. 

can't see how this work unless as digi said - it somehow scanned the item once it was already lodged into the street posting box and was irretrievable.

[*tippy*toes*]

I thought the same thing lm. It sounds good in theory, and majority of us honest sellers would do the right thing, but there are that element who are not that honest, and would absue it. I know they would rack up INR's, but for short term gain, it would be beneficial for a scammer. Not all buyers know to open an INR, as is evident by negative feedback on some seller's accounts.

I do like DG's idea about auto scanners in the boxes. That would work! Or having the ability to scan a code on the outside of the box, but it doesn't register as lodged until it's placed in the box (having some type of scanner inside). Pretty much the same thing I guess 😄

[south.coffee]

I read the thread on the Australia Post forum and the OP added when the item is scanned at the box it just adds an additional line to the tracking 'Box Dropped'. The parcel would not be considered lodged until the next scan at the Post Office or Mail Centre.

From a buyers perspective it would show their order is underway and as the facility would be tied to a MyPost account abuse would be limited. From an eBay perspective, with the ID requirements of the Managed Payment system I expect this might reduce fraudulent sellers too.

This would suit remote rural areas who have a post box and not a Post Office.

[audio-spot]

Seems like a good idea to me. If you currently post in a post box it can be hit or miss whether it gets scanned when it reaches the first mail centre. Sometimes tracking doesn't show up until it's reached it's destination and is ready to go onboard with the driver. This system would give those impatient buyers a little bit more comfort that the item is on the way.

Ideally over the counter lodgement is the preffered posting method, but some of us don't live and breath eBay and struggle to make it to the post office during opening hours.

Just a quick thought... some of those unscrupulous sellers might photograph the QR code, print it out at home, and make it look like they have posted an item earlier then they actually did!

[south.coffee]

A fair proportion of non scanned articles could be put down to the label print quality, following by mail flow procedure. I can lodge 5 articles through the post slot with identical labels and 4 get scanned.

Good point about senders using a copy of the local boxes QR code. Maybe adding a geo location check in the app when the QR code is scanned to cross check the box location could be applied.

[cremo1]

Why cant Aust Post update their tracking system to something from the 1970s instead of that pathetic joke they use now ?

No wonder they are losing business hand over fist to other options.

[padi*0409]

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@cremo1 wrote:

Why cant Aust Post update their tracking system to something from the 1970s instead of that pathetic joke they use now ?

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Maybe 'cos they don't want us to see parcels stuck / rerouted / lost in Underwood Chullora and Sunshine West.