Australia Post to begin charging for holding undelivered parcels

THAT annoying delivery slip you find in the mailbox instead of your package will now come with a price tag.

Australia Post is set to start charging customers for having their parcels held.

AUSTRALIA POST is set to start charging up to $9 for customers to pick up undelivered parcels in a change to delivery services announced today.

The once-government run delivery giant says the initiative, due to be introduced later this year, was formulated in response to customer demand.

Undelivered parcels are currently held at post offices for 10 days at no cost before being returned to sender. But Australia Post says its customers want their packages to be held longer, and they think they’ll be happy to pay.

From August 1, if a package isn’t collected within five days, its recipient would have to hand over $3 to pick it up.

An additional $3 will be charged for each week the package is held. Packages will be held for up to 30 days with customers paying up to $9 to retrieve an item.

In a statement sent to news.com.au, an Australia Post spokesman said the idea was to allow customers more time to collect their parcels.

“Most customers want to pick up their parcel quickly, with 92 per cent of parcels collected within five days,” he said.

“We believe this service will help the small amount of customers who can’t collect their parcel straight away.”

If the postie doesn’t catch you at home, prepare to pay.

Australia Post said it had conducted “extensive market research” before proposing the changes, speaking with more than 1500 customers.

“They have told us they want to avoid parcels being returned to sender and they would go out of their way to pick it up sooner to avoid the fee,” the spokesman said.

Speaking on 3AW radio, the company’s manager of postal services Christine Corbett said the changes were expected to make “a few million” for the company, which she said was “a very nominal amount”.

Communication Workers’ Union spokeswoman Joan Doyle told news.com.au there would be outrage over the “new service”.

“We think it’ll bring a lot of grief to our members at the retail shops who’ll cop a bit of abuse,” she said.

“We just think it’s another price gouge by the CEO of Australia Post and another step away from the right to receive mail as a community service.”

Australia Post has said it will drop the “Hold at Post” service if public reaction is negative.

Ms Doyle said she was confident a backlash would force Australia Post to “moderate some of the plans”.

The Commonwealth Ombudsman says Australia Post is the second most complained about entity in its jurisdiction.

Already this year the delivery giant has caused public outrage over increasing the price of stamps and changes to delivery times.

In January, the price of a regular stamp rocketed from 70 cents to one dollar, and delivery times for regular parcels were pushed out by two days.

The changes were made in response to a decline in traditional letter volumes.

Despite looking less and less likely to make a profit ever again — in February Australia Post announced an 84 per cent slide in half year profits — the company has been forced to defend its CEO’s multi-million dollar salary.

Earlier this year, the company defended CEO Ahmed Fahour’s $2.1 million takings, saying he turned down a $2.8 million performance bonus.

In 2014-15 Australia Post paid its executive team $13.47 million, while 900 workers lost their jobs thanks to the company’s dwindling profitability.

Along with its business practices, the company’s delivery service is also cause for complaint from millions of customers.

Late last year, Australia Post copped a storm of criticism after CCTV footage was published showing a Sydney courier making no attempt to deliver a resident’s parcel.

The footage, published by news.com.au, sparked a deluge of complaints from customers with similar experiences, forcing Australia Post to take action on the delivery driver and remind its workers of its “knock and call” policy.

Australia Post lost $221.7 million last year.

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