Large letters, new prices?

[saarzi]

Does anyone know the new price for LARGE letters?   Can find anything on the Auspost website (only the 70c - $1), or here, other than a lot of guessing and assuming.

Does anyone actually know the confirmed price?

[lyndal1838]

The large post offices in the Sydney CBD have been sorting the mail since about September last year.  My OH mentioned that the staff were not looking forward to doing it but no-one ever said how they had to do it.

There is ovbviously an official system in place but I don't know what it is.

I will get OH to ask when he goes back to work at the end of January.

[digital*ghost]

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@cmcoins2000 wrote:

Can you believe this is a :

42.86% HIKE.

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It's worse than that unfortunately. 😞

Today, a <125g large letter cost me $1.40 to post. If I posted it on Monday and want it to arrive in the same delivery timeframe as is quoted for my $1.40 letter, I'll have to pay $2.50, so that's approximately a 78.5% increase.

If I post a <50g letter to New Zealand or Asia, it will cost me $1.85. The same letter within Australia, minimum $2.00. (I know the price jumps a lot as soon as an international letter goes over 50g, while the domestic price is for up to 125g, and that the OS letter price doesn't include GST, but still.... )

@joe Australia Post claim regular mail will travel by road, hence the slower delivery time-frames, which implies priority mail will travel by air (I choose the word implies, because AP seem to have been careful not to expressly state how priority will travel). I'm not 100% convinced these time differences will affect large letters as much as implied, because large letters of certain specs (i.e ones that aren't in paper envelopes and/or are not flexible) have always been sorted and processed differently to letters that do meet those specs. 

[pennyforum14]

The way it was described to me by the PM at our large PO is this:

At the average post office, apart from applying the Priority sticker, there will be no difference to how staff currently process letter mail.  The changes will be managed at the sorting centre.

Some larger POs have some "pre-sorting" facilities and these will simply separate the Priority and regular mail into separate bags.

At the sorting centres, they will take the separated bags, and dump them straight into Priority and Regular bins, then they will sort the  unsorted mail and add that to the appropriate bins.  Final sorting will take place as normal, either by machine, or hand sorting according to the item.  But Priority mail will be sorted first, and loaded into the trucks first.  If there is room in the truck for more, then the oldest of the regular mail will be added (presumably there will be several bins for today, yesterday or older).  What won't fit stays in the Regular bins until the next truck.  So basically, the Priority will always move faster, the regular may sit and wait a day or two.

I don't know how accurate this is but that is how it was explained to me.

[gec2002]

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@pennyforum14 wrote:

The way it was described to me by the PM at our large PO is this:

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Nice to see Malcolm getting out among the masses and explaining his Post Office's new initiatives.

[pennyforum14]

LOL, I of course meant Postmaster, not Prime Minister. 

[lyndal1838]

Thanks Penny.....that makes perfect logical sense.  But of course it remains to be seen if it actually works.

AP is not well known for being logical.

It is no wonder the PO staff in the Sydney CBD were not looking forward to the extra work involved....it would involve a lot of work as they have many mail collections every day, not just one a day as smaller suburban POs do.

[gec2002]

It's even worse than that unfortunately.

Your eBay fees FVF on Postage will also go up 78.5%  eg If sold with no store, from 13.9c (9.9% of $1.40) to 24.8c ($2.50).

[misterforgetfulsbooks]

The priority mail is meant to be a precursor for the 3 day normal mail and 5 day priority mail delivery. ie: if you don't pay the extra 50c, your post may take an extra day to arrive depending on the day it was sent