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.

[brerrabbit585]

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.

[south.coffee]

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.