I don't imagine that Australia Post (AP) is even remotely interested but they must be losing business at the moment.

A month ago it took over two weeks and two complaints to get an envelope with five face masks across Melbourne with AP.

I ordered a further five masks from the same supplier on Sunday evening (11/10 - Yesterday!). They were delivered by 1100 today 12/10 around 18 hours go to whoa. Not by AP of course.

A book was ordered at lunchtime Friday 9/10 it was on the doorstep this morning (12/10) at 1000 - around 70 hours including 48 hours weekend. Again not AP of course.

My housemate had a card come across Melbourne after being posted on the 8th, arriving on the 12th. I checked the postmarks

It pays to have a good reputation:

Even DHL are crap, a letter sized parcel ordered from Sydney on Monday morning last week still not here, tracking saying Friday

It pays to have a good reputation:

I don't see why AP needs to justify anything.

Letter demand is declining rapidly, lost half of the 2006 peak in 13-14 years or roughly 4%pa decline and increasing. By 2025 it will likely be 25% of the mid 2000's.

Higher density and residential should 3 x a week, lower density residential 2 x week.

If you want 5 days a week, get a PO Box.

Done, case closed, move on.

If AP just did it anyway without saying so, do we think anyone would actually notice?

I don't see why AP needs to justify anything.

It can't; that's why.
The delivery time of mail items is abysmal. In my own case it has been nearly 2 weeks for a standard item  from Ulverstone Tasmania to Melbourne;  well over a week for a small parcel from 5 km away in the Melbourne CBD, and  an as yet undiscovered time for another standard item which was posted in Coburg on October 2.
The decline in performance from a once efficient service is just mind boggling, exacerbated by the head honcho of AP distributing performance bonuses as if they were going out of fashion; hiring a $3,000 a day spin doctor to try and explain away the appalling lack of service, and spending up large on chauffeur driven limousines, and bottomless credit  cards - all this whilst being paid an astronomical salary. This is the biggest snout in the most lavish trough seen in a long time.

It pays to have a good reputation:

I don't see why AP needs to justify anything.

Letter demand is declining rapidly, lost half of the 2006 peak in 13-14 years or roughly 4%pa decline and increasing. By 2025 it will likely be 25% of the mid 2000's.

Higher density and residential should 3 x a week, lower density residential 2 x week.

If you want 5 days a week, get a PO Box.

Done, case closed, move on.

If AP just did it anyway without saying so, do we think anyone would actually notice?

People pay good money for their postal 'service'. A 'so called service' they are not receiving at a time when Aust Post (AP) is patting its executives on the back and handing themselves bonuses which must be for achieving the demolition of the postal service. It can be for no other reason.
If your industry sold equally deficient products would you get a bonus and would the company be free of criticism or customer reaction?
As for the PO box took four weeks for a letter to a PO Box Melbourne suburb to suburb last month.

I just today had another registered letter delivered and left sans receipt.

Another complaint to Australia Post customer service for no result, so once again I write to the ombudsman for my refund - this time with an additional amount requested as a punitive measurement. These clowns need to be taught not to advertise and (worse) charge for a service they have no intention of providing - something their customer service staff foolishly admitted to on a recorded conversation. Hopefully some ‘coaching and training’ will be attached to that recording.

Currently I estimate about 60% of the money I have given to Australia Post this year has been refunded through complaints. I think they have reimbursed me for about 9-10 items lost now, I have actually made a decent bit of money out of them this last nine months...

Are they learning? I don’t think so, but I am at least trying to hold them accountable.

Just to be annoying - meanwhile in other parts of the world, mail deliveries are six days per week...for packages, order something one day, its often there the next - by standard mail. Its disappointing AP want to somehow justify mediocre service.

Sent a parcel yesterday. Dropped it off at Castlemaine PO in regional Victoria at 4.45pm, got an email early this afternoon to say that it had been delivered to Seaford Rise, SA less than 24 hours later. Normal mail, not express. Go figure.......

Just investigated a parcel I lodged at 10am at Adelaide GPO Wednesday last week, still not delivered to Walkerville an inner city Adelaide suburb.

I reckon I could WALK fron the Adelaide GPO to Walkerville LPO in 45-60 minutes.

If it doesn’t get there tomorrow (unlikely) then Monday will be 12 days, today I needed to get something from effectively Brisbane to a suburb of Perth, when I booked it Australia Post told me ‘less than 2 weeks’ - in writing, no less, so we will see how that goes...

The red street posting boxes, which used to close at 6PM on weekdays, are now being changed to close at 4PM.

Hence if you leave work at 5PM, your mail will lose a whole day more, unless you make a special trip in the mid afternoon to post letters.

These changes probably reduce:
* the amount of overtime
* number of shifts.
* number of vans doing the rounds.

AFAIK, the Sunday pickup was changed to 4PM some years ago, and has now been completely abolished, at least at Berowra.

Sent a parcel yesterday. Dropped it off at Castlemaine PO in regional Victoria at 4.45pm, got an email early this afternoon to say that it had been delivered to Seaford Rise, SA less than 24 hours later. Normal mail, not express. Go figure.......

Got a parcel today, express post from WA to my door in Melbourne in 36 hours.

The problem with letter pick-up time is, all post boxes in an area seem to have a unified pick-up time.  How is it possible?  How many vans do they need to keep to the promise?

The problem with letter pick-up time is, all post boxes in an area seem to have a unified pick-up time.  How is it possible?  How many vans do they need to keep to the promise?

The promise is that if you post prior to the time it will be collected.

Oh, so there is still a certain chance if you are marginally late, depending on the route of the van.

Yes, essentially the boxes start getting cleared at the appointed hour. If you arrive with a letter ten minutes late it might be collected, or it might not.

The problem with letter pick-up time is, all post boxes in an area seem to have a unified pick-up time.  How is it possible?  How many vans do they need to keep to the promise?

Yes, but I suspect its a combination of less mail so reduce costs. More physical handling done in normal business hours, less on penalty rates.

Even the 6ppm ones in the past you could be much later, but you had to see the truck come so as to know how late you could be.

As for people worried about loosing a day for letter mail, its called email!

It pays to have a good reputation:

I don't see why AP needs to justify anything.

Letter demand is declining rapidly, lost half of the 2006 peak in 13-14 years or roughly 4%pa decline and increasing. By 2025 it will likely be 25% of the mid 2000's.

Higher density and residential should 3 x a week, lower density residential 2 x week.

If you want 5 days a week, get a PO Box.

Done, case closed, move on.

If AP just did it anyway without saying so, do we think anyone would actually notice?

People pay good money for their postal 'service'. A 'so called service' they are not receiving at a time when Aust Post (AP) is patting its executives on the back and handing themselves bonuses which must be for achieving the demolition of the postal service. It can be for no other reason.
If your industry sold equally deficient products would you get a bonus and would the company be free of criticism or customer reaction?
As for the PO box took four weeks for a letter to a PO Box Melbourne suburb to suburb last month.

Well actually no, if you are referring to letter mail, you are not paying good money, rather you are subsidised, alot.

By reference to PO is that the home delivery service will be curtailed over time and AP are just dragging the chain due to politics. Get it over, get to what should be happening 2-3 deliveries a week. No one would give a crap and you want more, get a PO Box. As for 6 days a week mail service, I'm sure they are very few and far between these days.

FYI I typed 6 day a week mail delivery into Google and all I found were postal companies world wide announcing cutting mail to 3 x week or every other day. USPS claims 70% reduction in mail since 1999. Today average of 3 letters per week per box, most of which is regarded as no urgent, bills, addressed junk mail etc.

By and large I've never had a issue with AP in the past of from OS. People here blame Emirates Post for delays and missing stuff, but I've rarely had issue with them either. Yes Christmas mail often arrives in mid Jan, not sure where the issue is there, but I've sent stuff home from here that arrived in 4-5 working days to Central Coast NSW. Recently mail order hampers AP said will be delivered on Tues and delivered the Wed before and ordered on Monday.

Aaron seems to have an issue with AP in Adelaide and others are commenting on Mel. Who knows? Melbourne has hardly been the example of how to do things right in 2020 so it may extend to mail services and people isolated so I can only take Mel issues with a  grain of salt or now until some sort of normality returns to the economy in Vic. Yes do what Aaron does, complain for and get a refund. Cannot argue with that but is there a local issue.

Globally there are many industries suffering at the movement due to a rapid change in market. Try and buy bikes or parts at the moment? Or other non-team related exercise gear.

I would not be surprised if the decline in letter mail volume was to stall for at least a couple of years.

With the hits that this year has delivered to investment performance, house prices and the reputation of the aged care sector, I expect there will be a pause in the movement of seniors out of their homes into villages or aged care homes.

If they aren't shifting, lots of them will be staying on their grandfathered Telstra and AGL contracts that still give them free paper bills instead of being changed over to new arrangements when they move.

I would not be surprised if the decline in letter mail volume was to stall for at least a couple of years.

With the hits that this year has delivered to investment performance, house prices and the reputation of the aged care sector, I expect there will be a pause in the movement of seniors out of their homes into villages or aged care homes.

If they aren't shifting, lots of them will be staying on their grandfathered Telstra and AGL contracts that still give them free paper bills instead of being changed over to new arrangements when they move.

The issues in Mel seem pretty obvious, reading this group, people are mailing all sorts of stuff.

Comparing different country mail stats, it would appear a yearly average 4% decline is fairly common. This is not just a few oldies getting their monthly or Qtrly power bills and not all +70 year olds are fixed on 19th century technology way of getting bills. 1.3% or something like that of the population dies annually so this is alot more to it and I think its just an overall trend that is far deeper.

If we keep the linear annual 4% going, by 2025 there will not be alot left, less than 15% of year 2000 volumes, potentially closer to 10%. Perhaps at some point it will level off by at 10-20% of 2000 volumes you cannot even justify 3 or potentially 2 x week service.

We pay for a PO Box here in Dubai as no road side mail delivery option, I'm starting to wonder why. I went back through what's been mailed for last 9 mths, NAB statement (why its not electronic, I'm not sure), my subscription for Railway Digest, a few Christmas cards, the odd birthday car and odd small parcel that doesn't have duty owing or needs signature. In the last 3 years I've gone from driving/riding past at least once a week to less than monthly.

So far so good. Time will tell.

Supplier:

Shipped at 1354 on 14 October

Australia Post (AP):

Wed 14 Oct • 5:04pm - Received and ready for processing
Fri 16 Oct • 7:14pm - Item processed at facility SYDNEY NSW (whatever that means)
Tuesday 20 October delivered at home (Melbourne) at 1100. Congratulations AP a big improvement on recent performance.

Still waiting on a parcel shipped from Sydney to Melbourne 7 weeks ago by a friend. It spent 4 weeks in Sydney and now has vanished in Melbourne. Oh well.

Still waiting on a parcel shipped from Sydney to Melbourne 7 weeks ago by a friend. It spent 4 weeks in Sydney and now has vanished in Melbourne. Oh well.

Probably buried in the large pile of backlog they have.

Over the past two days I’ve got to witness two absolute shining examples of Australian work ethic.

Yesterday my partner received an email and text letting her know that her tracked parcel would arrive that day which it did about 1pm. However, it only made it as far as the footpath next to our letterbox where the, let’s not beat around here, quite overweight, yellow hi-vis clad government employee sitting on his red Australia Post owned Honda motorcycle looked up at the front door of our split level home and decided that the effort he’d have to expend on dismounting from his bike and walking up nine steps was just too much to bare. Instead, he pulled out his electronic pad, tapped some things into it and rode off. An hour later my partner gets a text and email letting her know that no one was home when our friendly mailman dropped by but her parcel was conveniently ready for pickup at our local post office. This seemed strange considering we have post office red painted front door which was clearly open when our mailman called past.

Today, I got an email and text letting me know that the tracked package I was expecting was due to be delivered. Could you believe that the same yellow hi-vis clad government employee once again found that I wasn’t home though despite the once again open front door and that my parcel was available to be picked up at my local post office but not before 4pm?

Brilliant work.

I forgot to add that after I’d managed to do a right turn onto a main road within a school zone area at school pick up time and then also managed to find a park at my local shopping centre just as everyone was heading in to pick up a chook and some white rolls for dinner, I ran into my neighbour in the post office also picking up a parcel. She’d also not been home despite the fact that she runs a small business from the front room of her house and had only just changed out of her pyjamas so as to go down to PO and collect the parcel she wasn’t home for despite previously had no plans at all to leave the house today except for when she was informed she hadn’t been home when our mailman called past but that her parcel was now conveniently located two kilometres from her house if she’d like to provide some ID and collect it.