The postal service is lifting the cost of domestic parcels, prepaid express post envelopes and satchels and some international letters, as well as mail ­redirection and holds.

Customers were hit with price rises on many of the services last year, months after the cost of a standard stamp was jacked up to $1.

The price increases come just weeks after it was revealed former chief executive Ahmed Fahour received almost $11 million in pay and perks in his final year.

The postal giant’s after-tax profit also rose to $95 million, compared with $36 million in 2016.

 

But an Australia Post spokeswoman blamed the price rises on increasing costs of delivery.

“For most products, this is the first price increase in over 12 months,” she said.

“We recognise that pricing changes are not easy for our customers and we have worked hard to keep prices ­unchanged on a large number of popular products, including on our parcel post satchels and seasonal domestic greeting card postage.”

From October 2, customers sending parcels within Australia will be slugged up to 35c more, depending on size.

Express post envelopes will rise from $6.10 to $6.40, while a single 500g satchel jumps from $10.85 to $11.35.

The cost of posting a letter to the US, UK and Europe will increase 5c to $3.

General mail direction for three months rises from $46.35 to $53.10, while two-week mail lifts from $30.85 to $35.30.

But the cost of stamps, posting Christmas cards within Australia and business mail remain unchanged.

 

Erin Turner, from consumer group Choice, said Australians often picked up on rising costs.

“Whether it’s big bank paying out huge bonuses and not delivering to customers or Australia Post increasing prices and paying huge amounts to executives, Australians are attuned to unfairness,” she said.

“That’s what every company needs to think about when they are considering price rises.

“It is reasonable to expect small price rises.

“However, large increases can really hurt some people. People who rely on postal services may not have access to online services and this might affect their budgets.”

monique.hore@news.com.au

 

 

There might be increases twice a year but not every product is increased each time. Looking at the positive side of it, ordinary satchels aren't changing, letters aren't changing, registered post isn't changing (except for imprints).

Express post is going up but I refuse to use it except in exceptional circumstances because it just feeds people's desire for instant gratification. Sellers using express post as standard are locking themselves and everyone else into an ever tightening spiral, much the same as undercutting competitors results in a race to the bottom.

As I said when they made the stamps $1, it's inevitable that they attempt to being parcels in line with the stamp rate. 500 gram parcels were roughly ten stamps back in the 60c/70c era. With the October 2017 change they will be just short of eight stamps. Of course, to make it seem "cheaper" against letters all they have to do is magically make the stamps $1.20 or $1.50 next year, I wouldn't put it past them.

Is that just the My Post business app, or the AP app in general? I like the app for keeping tabs on things. Everything is there at a glance and easy to see if everything has been delivered.

just the mypost business app tippy. the thing i found most useful about that app as opposed to the standard one is you could have a business name or sender name (ie ebay username) and put in an email address with the tracking number and the buyer would get tracking updates via email which included your business name / ebay username. 

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@bigbrickshop wrote:

Check out the Sendle/eBay announcement.

 

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/courier-startup-sendle-just-signed-a-major-deal-with-ebay-2017-9

 

We have been using Sendle for large parcels since they started up and highly recommend them. I haven't used them for the 500g satchels but will try a few and see how they go.

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No good to me in rural WA. Stuck with oz post !