By ANEEKA SIMONIS
AUSTRALIA post claims regional and rural post offices will not be affected by pricing and delivery changes designed to save Australia Post.
Australia Post recently visited the Berwick post office branch to discuss changes to regular and priority letter sending service as well as changes to stamp prices. The changes, which they claim will not affect regional and rural post offices, come after Australia Post forecast its first annual loss in more than 30 years in February after reporting another drop in letter volumes
Under the changes, Australia Post will offer two speeds of letter delivery at separate costs – a cheaper, regular service delivered two days slower than the original timetable and a more expensive priority service delivered under the current schedule.
Stamp costs for each service have also changed.
Australia Post is required to maintain at least 4000 post offices, with 2500 of those in rural and regional areas under its community service obligations.
Australia Post Regional Delivery Operations Manager Col James explained the changes to metropolitan offices will help sustain the business, including its regional branches.
“It’s about sustaining the business as such because… if we weren’t economically viable then neither would those licensees, so it’s about looking after each other,” he said.
Australia Post Manager Network Partnerships Barbara Young said Berwick locals were curious to understand the changes.
“The community has been very keen to understand how a Regular and Priority letter service and amended stamp pricing may affect them, their mail deliveries, and their local Post Office,” she said.
Today, posties are delivering 1.2 billion fewer letters than they did seven years ago, according to Australia Post.
An independent report commissioned by the Federal government who supported the changes found that, without the reform, the losses in the letters business would soon grow to $1 billion a year and lead to overall losses at Australia Post of $6.5 billion over a decade.
The changes are due to take effect after September this year.
