Australia Post Price Increase for 6th September 2021

ATangk on 06/08/2021 - 15:03

So just after I made a post about sendle having a cheaper parcel option, Australia Post, once again, does it again and raises prices in the other direction.

Starting 6th September, prices will increase ~1.5%, making the regular parcel option increase from $9.15 to $9.30. This is after a price increase was announced just 1st March this year where they were $8.95, and previously $8.30 before that. International letter costs increasing too, so they'll likely have to introduce new stamp options too.

More info here:
https://auspost.com.au/service-updates/current-updates/prici…

Continuously raising prices like this continues to put a strain on businesses, especially since we are more and more reliant on delivery services in this time. Thoughts?

General Discussion

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Comments

  • jimbobaus on 06/08/2021 - 15:06
    +18

    Still won’t get me to use sendle

    • TilacVIP on 07/08/2021 - 09:02
      +3

      100% agree with you, but it won't be long before they up their prices also?

      • dlakers3peat on 08/08/2021 - 13:12
        +9

        I have used sendle at least a dozen times and have had zero problems. I have items sent from nsw to wa and they arrived with no issues.

        • knk on 09/08/2021 - 15:17

          I use it here and there for work.

          They're hit and miss. Metro Melbourne can vary from NBD to (rarely) 7 business days.
          Interstate is hit and miss, sydney was good. QLD took a while.

          If it's for something I don't need to get there in a hurry they do the job.

    • HeWhoKnows on 08/08/2021 - 20:16

      Sendle is the most unreliable Courier company ever

      • zintill on 09/08/2021 - 12:06
        +1

        I've used them about 5 times and have had no issues yet

        • FireSword on 09/08/2021 - 13:09
          +1

          Depends where you live, in my area Sendle uses Fastway every time, the worst rated courier company in Australia. Try sending a parcel and have Fastway take 15 days to pick it up. Never again.

        • HeWhoKnows on 10/08/2021 - 09:33

          Lucky you
          Plenty of bad experiences elsewhere though

  • Nugs on 06/08/2021 - 15:07
    +44

    they have bills to pay
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-04/christine-holgate-mil…
    .

    • EightImmortals on 06/08/2021 - 18:00
      +42

      She's doing it wrong.

      https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-25/ahmed-fahour-walks-away-from-australia-post-with-$10.8-million/8841226

      Instead of making AP profitable and efficient she should have trashed the place and taken a dump on the carpet.

      • brad1-8tsi on 09/08/2021 - 13:33
        +1

        And made a huge donation to a relatives charity

    • Caped Baldy on 06/08/2021 - 21:15
      +18

      The liberal party needed a deflection from when Gladys was getting grilled about corruption.

    • Stphen on 07/08/2021 - 16:41
      +10

      She should have done it like NBN and given millions of dollars in bonuses to the execs, then she might still have a job.

      https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-18/nbn-co-executives-emp…

    • HeWhoKnows on 08/08/2021 - 20:19

      Well that explains it
      Same with their last boss

    • bonezAU on 09/08/2021 - 08:20
      +2

      I much prefer this version of the story: https://www.theshovel.com.au/2021/08/04/holgate-australia-po…

  • screensaver on 06/08/2021 - 15:11

    They also now charge 40c for prepaid satchel

    • harthagan on 07/08/2021 - 18:52

      It's 25 cents for the small express satchels, no idea about the other sizes.

      • ATangk on 08/08/2021 - 19:50

        I just buy them in bulk for 15c each. 100 for $15 is pretty good deal considering they have a plastic sleeve to put printed parcel labels in. Not so necessary for those with thermal printers.

  • popsiee on 06/08/2021 - 15:13
    -4

    Why in the hell is there no warning weeks in advance ?

    • Morien on 06/08/2021 - 15:35
      +23

      It starts in a month from today. Isn't that weeks in advance?

  • Axelstrife on 06/08/2021 - 15:21
    +9

    Sendle here i come for all parcels, this price rises are stupid, twice in one year wtf are they thinking.

    • netjock on 06/08/2021 - 16:18
      +6

      Captive audience, you're all their prisoners pretty much.

    • jimbobaus on 06/08/2021 - 20:46
      +27

      I run a small web based store.
      I get no less than 3 emails a day asking who we use for shipping, so much that i now have it clear on the website that we use Aus Post.

      The majority of the emails are people asking if i use Couriers Please or Fastway as they are not likley to shop with me if i do.

      I used to use them ages ago, the issues i had were so bad that i calculated that the slightly higher rates from AP were actually costing me less as i was not having to deal with CP/FW issues which cost time and money

      Thats my 2 cents

      • TilacVIP on 07/08/2021 - 09:03
        +2

        Yep, when I am told it was shipped with Sendle, I get real nervous.

      • bazingaa on 07/08/2021 - 17:13
        +2

        I get no less than 3 emails a day asking who we use for shipping

        I used to ask Ebay sellers like this, now I look for "Shipped with AusPost" in the listing or images.

      • [Deactivated] on 07/08/2021 - 18:18

        Personally same city with Sendle/CP or direct to business is fine but interstate is big no no.

  • CyberMurning on 06/08/2021 - 15:56
    +11

    instead of focus on just doing post they try to become jbhifi/two dollar shop/officework in one.
    selling laptop, Chinese junk, and books. seriously… and the CEO got millions salary
    and the one before this
    and the one before that

  • Soluble on 06/08/2021 - 16:10

    CPI increase?

  • Jimothy Wongingtons on 06/08/2021 - 16:17
    +6

    Still rather cop it and eat into my margins as a small business than depend on sendle.

    • fungi79 on 06/08/2021 - 16:22
      +2

      What's wrong with Sendle? Considering Sendle for the side hustle.

      • Jimothy Wongingtons on 06/08/2021 - 16:25
        +3

        YMMV but Sendle uses whowever is the cheapest bidder and unfortunately a lot of the time that's fastway/aramex.
        Lots of feedback alone on this forum/online with feedback ranging from not picking up on time, to being very hard to chase up for lost/damaged goods.
        The local guy that does our area is rude/very hard to deal with, but some people report their franchisee being awesome to deal with so AGAIN, YMMV.
        At least with Aus post I would say they are the best of the bad bunch.

        • netjock on 06/08/2021 - 16:28

          franchisee

          That is the problem with the model. There is difference between being a good franchise than just squeezing your franchisees.

        • raptormesh on 06/08/2021 - 16:34
          +3

          Yeah I noticed recently that Amazon has completely done away with Fastway and now uses parcelpoint.

          I actively stopped buying from shops that uses aramex/fastway now.

          • AdosHouse on 06/08/2021 - 21:25
            +6

            @raptormesh: I'm in Brisbane and all my Amazon packages for the last few months have been with a company called Dragonfly, and honestly I can't fault them. First package I got from them was on a bloody Sunday. I ordered on Saturday afternoon, and it arrived Sunday at 1pm, was a definite WTF moment, but I wasn't complaining.

            • PurchaseAnxiety on 08/08/2021 - 15:42

              @AdosHouse: Likewise in Canberra, been getting about 50% of Amazon parcels delivered by a company called CODExpress. I couldn't find any existence of them online, though I now see they have this website…

              Though likewise, I've been pretty happy with the service. I once ordered something on a Saturday night and it was delivered Sunday morning. Makes me wonder if companies are rapidly being spun up just to take advantage of the demand created by Amazon.

          • PurchaseAnxiety on 08/08/2021 - 15:36
            +1

            @raptormesh: I had a fastway parcel from Amazon delivered a few days ago, though that was the first one in a while. But they haven't completely done away with them.

        • [Deactivated] on 06/08/2021 - 18:24
          +11

          We had a parcel delivered by sendle for the first time last week.

          My neighbour called to ask why we had a visitor during lockdown. I was confused as to what he was going on about until my husband noticed the parcel at the front door. I explained to our neighbour that we didn't have any visitors to the house and that it was a courier. He didn't initially believe us as he said the 'courier' drove a camry and was dressed in ordinary clothes (not a uniform) and he didn't notice him carrying anything. As we were at the back of the house at the time of the delivery and didn't see the courier, I emailed our neighbour a photo of the (small) parcel to allay his concerns so that he wouldn't call the cops next.

          Retiree 'nosey parker' neighbours during lockdown are especially annoying. If only sendle couriers would assist by dressing the part & driving a van.

          • Jimothy Wongingtons on 06/08/2021 - 18:32
            +1

            @[Deactivated]: Same level as amazon then I guess.

            • ATangk on 06/08/2021 - 19:11

              @Jimothy Wongingtons: Amazon has recently converted to using a whole bunch of part time drivers under Amazon Flex, but one of the requirements is 4 doors and covered load area, which means vans and most utes are unable to deliver goods.

          • burningrage on 07/08/2021 - 13:22
            +6

            @[Deactivated]: You can return the "nosey parker" the courtesy of calling cops for any indiscretion the neighbour does in the future.

            The neighbour has just given you the licence to do that.

            • [Deactivated] on 07/08/2021 - 14:52

              @burningrage: He was a 'busy body' previously with lockdown amping things up.

              We're the only neighbours on the street that he gets on with as we recognise his 'faults' and try to work with his very, very old school ways.

              Hey, wouldn't have known about the 'civilian' couriers if he didn't bring it to our attention.

              • burningrage on 07/08/2021 - 20:23
                +2

                @[Deactivated]: You know what, Amazon couriers used to at least bell the door.

                These days, the only time I know the package is at the door is when I got an email saying "Your Package Has Been Delivered" and I quickly rushed down and checked it out.

                That's another way to bringing delivery to your attention.

                Auspost, to their credit, still bells… for now.

                • [Deactivated] on 07/08/2021 - 21:15
                  +1

                  @burningrage: That's true for us as well - the StarTrack courier is very friendly and always knocks on the door after leaving the parcel on the front porch as does DHL

                  Not a fan of the postie as he prefers to leave parcels in the letterbox (even when it's oversized & doesn't fit) so we only find out when the email is received.

                  Couriers Please also deliver by stealth and I've seen them throw a parcel across the front porch as they couldn't be bothered taking 3 steps up the stairs to set it down - luckily, no damage but still.

        • Dotherightthing on 09/08/2021 - 14:58

          the lesser of two evils.. there is no good guy anymore.. even the one that's called good guy is not actually good..

      • Ziggy28 on 07/08/2021 - 17:45

        If something goes wrong, the customer service is non existent. And note there is no contact number, just email snail mail.

      • harthagan on 07/08/2021 - 18:59

        Australia Post have been very easy to deal with on the 2 times that a parcel I sent went missing. They promptly paid me the value of what I had sent (up to a maximum of $100) without too much hassles.

        The constant increases in the pricing is annoying but it's roughly between 1-2% increase each time so it's hardly going to put anyone out of business.

    • wackedupwacko on 08/08/2021 - 18:08

      Funnily as you scale the business and move into eparcel, AP prices get progressively cheaper than sendle and you get better service as the business user.
      This change could be that they also just massively shifted their eparcel side and eliminated a lot of zones. I took a look at my new rates cards and overall it was cheaper and that's before I get them to do a price review based on my yearly volume.

  • mickyb80 on 06/08/2021 - 16:25
    +3

    Need to cover the cost of some watches and the payout for Christine!

  • plmko on 06/08/2021 - 16:51
    +14

    Pretty cringy that people bash Holgate for an issue ill-understood. She's actually pretty reasonable and prices rises are there to actually make Auspost Franchisees sustainable. The Cartier watch saga was of course in bad taste but ultimately they are $30k in gifts which is completely immaterial compared to the pork barreled millions that occurs in many other Government organisations. Instead the attention of Holgate is gaslighting by Government to remove her out of seat to then position Auspost into privatisation whilst they pocket the millions out the dead corpse.

    Watch this space.

    • ATangk on 06/08/2021 - 17:10
      +3

      I thought it was found that the watches were well within her rights for bonuses.

      • garetz on 06/08/2021 - 17:33
        +13

        There was no wrong doing with the watches, they just used it as an excuse to get rid of her.

        • ATangk on 06/08/2021 - 17:40
          +11

          Scunty pushed it.

      • plmko on 06/08/2021 - 17:58
        +10

        I mean you take a few steps back to look at the whole issue, and it's just bizarre.

        Such a farce over $30k watches, yet each committee hearing and grilling and investigations and…….all probably cost hundreds of thousands for each sitting.

        And the bottom line it wasn't the Auspost coffers paying that which at least meant there is some disconnect for tax payers, now we're dealing actual tax payers money to investigate something not in the interest of the public.

        • ATangk on 06/08/2021 - 18:01
          +8

          Distraction away from all the other allegations against the LNP at the time.

        • MrFrugalSpend on 13/08/2021 - 06:44

          How can I upvote this more than once!

          That's government spending for you - spend $300K+ to investigate $30K that in the end actually wasn't dodgy (as she had a kind of board approval / authority to purchase), and rewarded people for making profits from commercial ventures that made the organisation money (so it wasn't propped up by taxpayers anymore), which covered the watches hundreds of times over!!

          Unfortunately, there's plenty of 'bizzare' things that happen in all levels of government and bureaucracy - often supposedly in the name of probity and avoidance of corruption that cost way more than they protect - often it's actually politics (and I don't just mean left vs right, power plays amongst individuals), and add to that media looking for drama and politicians responding with knee-jerk reactions (the latter, sums up plenty of ScoMos moves to the headlines of the day).

    • jdf on 06/08/2021 - 17:30
      +8

      There was an article sometime ago about how she helped so many Franchisee’s, that they were willing to send in the money to pay out the amount for those watches.

      Nobody said anything about Fahour who pocketed millions while cutting jobs from Auspost to get ii into the black after doing the same at NAB, but this ingenious lady they bashed & pounded!

      • ATangk on 06/08/2021 - 17:41
        +4

        Cant have anyone seen doing good things for the community when theres a LNP government. Only cash for mates allowed.

      • syousef on 08/08/2021 - 04:47
        -1

        "Nobody said anything about Fahour who pocketed millions while cutting jobs from Auspost"

        Are you serious? 4 pages of results if you search his name here. 6 pages for Holgate but those include references to Holgate Brewery. So "nobody" is a bit of a stretch.

        • buckster on 08/08/2021 - 10:42
          +1

          Nobody said anything in the public space

          • syousef on 09/08/2021 - 03:49
            +1

            @buckster: This IS a public forum. This IS the public space. I could just as easily dig up newspaper articles. How do you think you even know about Fahour? Most people here don't work at Australia Post.

            • jdf on 12/08/2021 - 16:17

              @syousef: Your right they don’t anymore because they must have been fired & replaced with contractors.

              Also Fahour was not dragged through the sludge like Holgate. He was given a pat on the back and millions to leave.

  • brendanm on 06/08/2021 - 17:43
    +6

    Prices go up, quality of service go down.

    Took them almost 2 weeks to get my rates notice to me.

    Still no guaranteed express "because of covid" even though all other couriers can operate as they did before.

    Had stuff from Amazon come from the states recently, got to me before an item from Melbourne posted express at the same time.

    Completely and utterly useless.

    • BewareOfThe Dog on 06/08/2021 - 18:24
      +2

      I posted letter Registered Post a few years back, that was going from Maitland to Newcastle. It left on say Monday the 1st, and got their Tuesday 8th. It spent 5 days at the Mail Centre in Sydney!!!
      Overall, I've found AusPost a hell of a lot better than Fastway/Aramex in the last 18 months.

      • brendanm on 07/08/2021 - 16:03
        +2

        AusPost a hell of a lot better than Fastway/Aramex

        I must be about the only person who has never had issues with them.

    • [Deactivated] on 06/08/2021 - 19:38

      Lol, you in a hurry to pay it?

      • brendanm on 06/08/2021 - 19:47

        Haha yeah I love paying it 😂

  • BewareOfThe Dog on 06/08/2021 - 18:21
    +5

    About a decade ago, when AP started raising their prices, they gave the justification that the price was to justify the cost of delivering an item to remote parts of Australia. So ie it may cost them $5-7 to deliver a parcel that they charge $10 for, however delivering to somewhere like Kiwirrkurra my cost $40. Same with a letter. Again delivering a letter they charge $1.35 for might cost them $20 to deliver to remote places.
    What really is annoying is Australian Businesses get charged these exorbitant prices, yet anything coming from China (AliExpress, BangGood, Ebay etc)or Amazon, quite often has freight included.(or very little cost).

    • popsiee on 06/08/2021 - 18:24
      +4

      Yeap eg sending a dice down the road $9.15 .
      From China cents .

      • [Deactivated] on 06/08/2021 - 19:39
        +4

        3 months later for your cents

        • Dumax on 07/08/2021 - 20:49
          +1

          Had several items arrive recently from AliExpress within 2 weeks (just regular shipping), whilst a letter from VIC to QLD took the same amount of time…

          • [Deactivated] on 08/08/2021 - 07:41

            @Dumax: miracle

      • [Deactivated] on 09/08/2021 - 09:59

        Yeah actually there's a few reasons for this. Volume of parcels out of China increasing scale, they are still classified as 'developing' which reduces international freight costs IIRC fees etc, China Post is significantly subsidized by their gov and obviously cheaper labor etc would contribute.

    • jpl on 06/08/2021 - 22:35
      +2

      we are paying for the cheap international shipping exploit.

  • jimbobaus on 06/08/2021 - 20:43
    +1

    Should also be noted they are dramatically widening the zones they consider metro and semi rural
    So why rates might go up slightly, more addresses will fall into cheaper categories

    • popsiee on 06/08/2021 - 20:45

      Really , opportunity for certain properties in the new zones .

    • wackedupwacko on 08/08/2021 - 18:14
      +1

      Pretty much something like 30+ zones is just becoming 6.

      Same capital City,
      Same state metro (reasonably large towns)
      Same state rural
      Interstate capital,
      Interstate Metro
      Interstate rural.

      Overall when I looked through my new rate card, there is definitely a drop in price for a lot more towns. Also stuff like East coast to west coast gets cheaper too.

  • Myone888 on 07/08/2021 - 08:30
    +5

    It’s a very rich corporation able to give employees Cartier watches and pay ceo top dollar. In fact postage should be reduced in this pandemic.

    • Maxxjet on 07/08/2021 - 14:52
      +2

      Interestingly (and strangely) she got a lots of empathies on the media….Never understand why paying these executives in the entities with public monopoly disproportionally higher salaries which are funded by the taxpayers. They get paid much higher than most elected officials to do what? Not to waste public money? Not to be corrupted?

      • greatlamp on 08/08/2021 - 16:00

        Shouldn't you be comparing their salaries to the equivalent position in a private company?

        If working for a public company only pays 1/4 the wage of the exact same job in a private company, the only people who will work there are either incompetent or happily making money through corruption.

        • Maxxjet on 09/08/2021 - 14:29

          The public entities enjoy monopoly and they also enjoy the public funding, 2 biggest stressful challenges for all private companies. Public entities like Austpost do not generate enough commercial returns/interests. They exist (arguably wrong reason) because it appears no other private entity wants to do some of the services they provide. But look at what Telstra has achieved, (https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/aug/03/telstra-to-…), can Austpost make posting free in Australia?

          And the same can be said using your mentality, but the other way around, why would people working for stressful private sector work when they can work for a monopoly for the same. If these entities are created to provide welfare then fine, we just need to look at some European countries to know what will happen. Christine's biggest proponents are from these franchisees who made money out of the business model not the average employee, and certainly not their customers (increased postage and reduced delivery frequency, to name a few).

          ScoMo might not be a good PM on many fronts and he might be using this as a smoke screen but calling out a 'public entity" officer using tax payer money to reward other appointed public entities executive luxury watches is what he is supposed to do. And of course taxpayer will suffer anyway… walking away with a million taxpayer's money and still thinking the whole community owning her an apology?

          • greatlamp on 09/08/2021 - 15:09

            @Maxxjet: I'm not advocating for monopolies, but just to point out that underpaying public positions isn't always the best move. Singapore avoids corruption by paying politicians high salaries, but imposing hash penalties on corruption.

            It is the same with charities. They are judged at some impossible standard where everyone who works for them should be paid the bare minimum, paying a bonus to a charity exec is obscene!

            Auspost does turn a profit, they are also forbidden from increasing prices to whatever level they want, their minor yearly increases are the maximum possible, and they still lose money on their mail delivery service.

            Noone else will provide this service in the free market, but these facts are lost when the media just wants to create outrage about free watches, a tiny bonus that pales in comparison to what those same execs would receive working literally anywhere else.

            You seem to be falling into the same trap, Auspost isn't run by the government, it is just owned by the government. What they do or do not do has nothing to do with the current PM

  • Top G on 07/08/2021 - 08:38
    +1

    Hope they don't kill e-commerce by making it more than $10 until say 2023.

    The costs should be reducing based on economies of scale, in terms of parcels being shipped. Wages will always go up but the minimum wage for postie's has hardly surged.

    Tbh online shopping has had effects on people which don't even use it. Brick and mortar shops have become more varied with products and competitive. Harvey Norman not included

  • Ozpit on 07/08/2021 - 09:19
    +2

    Auspost’s relentless price increases is all about better positioning the behemoth for privatisation.

    • popsiee on 07/08/2021 - 09:27
      +1

      I thought it was the govt wants to stimulate the economy ( not ) or are more interested in more revenue by allowing it .
      Same as having govt regulate fuel prices when increases help their bottom line as well .

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