Self Service Terminals at Aus Post

[digital*ghost]

I just wanted to share this info here in case some weren't aware and found it helpful.

If you regularly send international letters using a green CN22 customs forms (like I do) and your PO has the self service terminals, you can get proof of lodgment via the terminal.

I was hoping I could do everything that takes the most time at the counter (processing a dozen international letters takes a while), but as it turns out the most you can do is buy stamps at the terminal, get a receipt, then go up to the counter to collect them, but if you have the stamps on the letters, you can scan the barcode at the terminal and enter the destination country. You'll then get a printed lodgement receipt showing each UC number, which could come in very handy in some cases (not as handy as proof of delivery, of course, but it's better than nothing  ) I already photograph packages with their customs forms filled out in full, so for situations where proof of shipping is needed, this could well satisfy the requirements.

Same applies to registered domestic letters - the counter terminals can lodge them, and the staff can stamp the little paper slip, but you never got a printed receipt with the number, while you can now via a self-service terminal. 

[digital*ghost]

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@dylan11235813 wrote:

How can this be better for domestic registered post?

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Not better, just different - the little form requires the name and address to be filled out and needs a staff member to stamp it, but I have always thought it would be incredibly easy to manipulate one (not going into more detail than that), while a printed Australia Post receipt is a little less easy to manipulate, particularly the physical version.

My PO staff aren't particlarly gung-ho about them, they mostly like to get anyone paying bills to use them (I expect that's a directive from higher up), and they've already said that some things will be easier just to do at the counter, as they know I've always preferred the printed postage labels on international letters rather than stamps, so I'm kinda tossing up whether I prefer the label, or a lodgement receipt. I'm leaning more towards lodgement receipt - I guess I could ask them for both, though I was hoping these things would reduce the amount of time I spend at the counter(s) rather than increase them. Lodging international articles, especially when I had a few unpaid parcels as well as several letters, would sometimes make the line behind me bank up. The staff never said anything about it, mind you, and if I said anything they would always tell me not to be silly etc. and they were there to do things the way I like them (this is after I mentioned I preferred each one lodged with the printed postage label, as some would just whack the stamps on there) but ultimately I felt like the more I could do to make both our jobs easier / faster, the better. 

The tracking on my lodged articles starts from the lodgement, so all good there (for me, so far), but the time to lodge varies depending on whether there is a staff member already in attendance at the terminals to provide assistance, because the scanning bit takes a few seconds on each one, but the other day I was waiting for a staff member to approve the lodgements (and get my receipt) for several minutes. Everyone was busy so in the end I had to go line up in the queue to call someone over to the machine, so that day it would have been much faster to take them to the counter instead.