The logic of Aust Post priority mail and daily deliveries

[audio-spot]

I'll be the first to admit that $1.00 for sending a letter to anywhere in Australia is excellent value, considering the kms it may travel. Even $2.45 for a prepaid C5 envelope for sending a DVD up to 500g is very reasonable.

Over the years, as email has grown exponentially, and more and more businesses are sending statements and invoices via the net, I thought the obvious move would be to have my postman come every second day, rather than daily. In the last few years I have noticed the postie skip every 2nd and 3rd and 4th house on their daily route as the numbers of letters decline.

So why would Aust Post continue on with daily deliveries, when if they reduced it to every 2nd day, they would require half as many posties in metropolitan areas? I would have thought that labour costs to have daily deliveries would be a major factor in the losses they are experiencing in the letter side of their business.

In a normal fortnight without any public holidays, what would be wrong with 3 deliveries in the first week, and 2 in the next week (ie every 2nd day)? The same postman could cover another area on the alternate days,

In their infinite wisdom, Aust Post decides to introduce Prioroty Mail (50c extra), which locks them into daily deliveries, and I seriously wonder if many people are using this service. Businesses with priority mail would still be using Express Post and/or email, and Express Post is still an option for those of us individuals that need to send documents urgently.

I am not suggesting that they should sack half their current postie workforce, but they could have allowed natural attrition and/or redeploying posties into other areas of the business, such as their expanding parcel division,  during the past couple of years and into the future.

Are any of you currently using or have used Priority Mail, and would it bother you if your local postie only delivered every 2nd day?

[davidc4430]

yeah, 7 days over the top. but you get the idea.

why is it the 'clever' people seem to allways be comming up with ways to remove jobs from ordinary everyday people

when i was young we had a rubbish truck come with a driver and 4 men hanging on the back emptying the bins, now we just have the driver, 4 guys lose their jobs.

when dad took the car to fill up with petrol a young man would come out and fill the car up, clean the window and check the oil! now we do it ourselves, sorry young man your out of a job.

council would have gangs of men going around cleaning out drains so when the rains came we didnt get flooding. sorry guys, we can do without you too.

now the big supermarkets are trying to make us scan our own shopping! goodbye checkout ladys.

i'm sure if i sat and thought hard i'd think of more examples, but its allways people who really need the jobs as they arnt uni graduats just worker ants.

[audio-spot]

That's something I would not like to see, 7 days a week postal deliveries (and this is from someone who works weekends, although not every one as it's a rotating roster). But I guess I am a patient person, so if my large letter package does not arrive on Friday, I'm still happy with delivery on a Monday or Tuesday.

I have heard that in years gone by, Saturday mail deliveries were standard, and 2 deliveries each day... but I am not sure what decade that would have been?

As someone who avoids the supermarket self-service (in an attempt to keep the checkout operator in a job), I can't say I am consistent, and prefer to fill my own petrol and have the automated garbage truck. But how far do we take it... avoid EFTPOS and queue in the bank each week and withdraw our weekly wage, ditch the refrigerator and have the guy bring in the block of ice for the ice box once or twice a week?

BTW - love the Corgi Fawlty Towers... very tempting! Never seen that before.

[*tippy*toes*]

I live in a country area and have daily mail deliveries. My postie is always loaded up. It doesn't matter what time I go to the PO, there will be at least one postie there dropping off small parcels or registered letters that needed signing for and the person not home. I drive past the mail centre on my way to work. It doesn't matter what time I go to work, there are posties coming and going picking up more mail.

I put a priority sticker on a large letter going from NSW to WA a few weeks ago. When I asked for the sticker, the postmaster said, it's all yours if you want to waste your money. He then went on to say that he contacted 20 post offices around the country. Some in rural areas, some in city areas. He asked each one to send 2 letters. One with a priority sticker, one without. He also sent the same to them, one with one without.

They all started arriving within the week and each priority letter that turned up, its regular mail companion arrived the same day. It was the same with each of the pair he sent to those other PO's. I know it's only a small study, but it seemed strange that they ALL arrived together.

[lyndal1838]

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@audio-spot wrote:

I have heard that in years gone by, Saturday mail deliveries were standard, and 2 deliveries each day... but I am not sure what decade that would have been?

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Yes, you are right about twice daily mail deliveries and Saturday deliveries being standard.

I grew up with that being standard service....and the postman used to blow his whistle when he put mail in the box.

It was still going strong in 1967 but I moved to Canberra where I lived on the Navy Base....it was a bit of a shock to the system to have to walk to the base Post Office to collect our mail every day....no home delivery.

We did still get home delivered milk though.

I came back to Sydney in 1970 and we still had Saturday delivery and the postman blowing his whistle to let us know we had mail.  Not sure about the 2 deliveries a day by that stage.

My great grandmother was the post mistress at Prestons NSW....when she retired in the late 1930s she received a certificate from the Post Master General that said she was the longest serving post mistress in NSW at the time of her retirement.