Change in AusPost red box collection times

[porcelain_dolls_by_me]

Hearing that as from mid November AusPost will change from an evening clearance (in our case 6pm) of the street red boxes to a midday clearance.  The box will no longer be cleared by a dedicated AusPost van, rather by your local postie.

At the moment, any orders we receive before 5:30pm are placed into the mail box that day thereby ensuring (well, assisting) prompt delivery.

In essence this change means that most of our sales will be mailed/delivered one day later than at present.

AusPost again claim that diminishing volumes of snail mail mean they need to cut costs by reducing services.  Seems like an echo of the story spun by banks as their excuse for closing branches - an endless cycle.  Reduce services so less people can use the service and then claim this reduced patronage as an excuses to further reduce services.

[performance_parts_clearance_centre]

Yellow "Express Post" box clearance times have also changed to 5pm, rather than 6pm.

[pag_180]

Mine used to be 5pm and its now 2pm.

[south.coffee]

Out here in regional Australia, (3 hours from Melbourne) our red box closing times have gone from 5pm to 3pm and currently 1pm.  They just keep placing a different sticker over the previous time !

[*tippy*toes*]

I didn't think to check my red box when I was there on Friday. I will drive past today when I'm out and see what it says.

[oz-e-seller]

My closest one has always been 2pm. But it's a small one and often full to the point the mail gets jammed in behind the flap. The second closest one about 5km away is larger and empties at 4pm so I often go there instead.

[purplemon18]

I've tried to learn as much as I can about how these boxes work, and here is the info I have gathered.

The first thing to know is that those boxes often get emptied more than once per day, especially the busier ones of course, so posting in the morning may get an item on it's way a bit sooner. Assuming that they don't just move it to another location temporarily, such as the back office of a PO.

The scheduled clearance time posted on the box is just the earliest time that it might get emptied for the last time that day. Or in other words, if it says 5pm, then they will at least empty it once after that time.

The collection people's runs finish at something like 9 or 10 pm.

Most importantly though, I have very little faith in the posted clearance times, and try to post my mail a couple of hours before that. How many people have we all worked with over the years that are not very dedicated to their jobs and don't do them properly? It's always a good idea to attempt to compensate for lazyness and incompetence.

As for sunday pickups, AP's advice is to go to one at a proper post office, not a franchise one.  But the easiest way to find a box that has sunday pickup is to find one attached to an express box. I think I get most of my "it arrived early" feedbacks from mailing on Sunday.

This last part is mostly conjecture, but if a box gets a new schedule posted, assume it only relates to the days listed. In other words, if a box has sunday pickup and they post a sign about changing weekday clearance times, then probably the sunday clearance time hasn't changed, but play it safe and assume the new clearance time applies to Sundays too. Unless they specifically post a sign saying that Sunday collection is being cancelled, then they are probably still collecting. You could always put a post it note on the box asking for clarification.

Boxes don't get cleared on public holidays, but I usually try to post anyway, it can't hurt. Especially on a confusing day like when a public holiday falls on a weekend.

[swamp-stalker]

Clearance times on all boxes are just a guide, it all depends on who does the clearing. Both the post offices near my place (Outer Sydney), have a clearance time of 4.30pm. But I have seen the boxes being cleared between 2:30-3:30pm on several occasions.  You drop a letter/parcel in there after 4pm and you will hear metal, as it hits the floor of the box.

[*tippy*toes*]

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@swamp-stalker wrote:

Clearance times on all boxes are just a guide, it all depends on who does the clearing. Both the post offices near my place (Outer Sydney), have a clearance time of 4.30pm. But I have seen the boxes being cleared between 2:30-3:30pm on several occasions.  You drop a letter/parcel in there after 4pm and you will hear metal, as it hits the floor of the box.

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I haven't checked mine since the change, but it used to be 4pm clearing. The truck would arrive between 4.20 and 4.30pm most of the time. I used to bust my gut to get down there before then. Then I found out that while they had that clearing at that time, they also had another one just after closing at 6.05pm. Not just for parcels, but they'd empty the red boxes too. That took so much pressure off me when I was on a 4pm finish. I had 2 hours to get to the PO instead of busting a poofle valve to be there before 4.20pm.

Most people didn't know about  the 6.05 pick up. I know they still have that one because they were getting the bags ready when I was there the other day at 5.50pm.

[tekcare42]

That sucks - many, many home businesses used their local post box for business mail at day's end, now for important same day mail outs at day's end they will have to organize to drive to a Australia post shop.  

[11dustyattic]

It would be unusual if they returned at 6 to collect parcels. My local PO has last parcel collection at 4.30 or that's when the truck gets there and they don't hang around for long