Australia Post hikes the price of sending a parcel

GET ready to pay even more for your parcels. Australia Post has announced another price hike - after handing its outgoing CEO almost $11 million.

Parcels are about to get more expensive after Australia Post announced yet another price hike.

AUSTRALIA Post has announced plans for yet another round of price hikes.

The news comes after the national carrier unveiled a bumper profit of $95 million and handed its outgoing CEO $10.79 million.

From October 2, Australia Post will be changing the price of some products by an average of 2.8 per cent or up to 35 cents extra.

Express Post envelopes — the only way to ensure a letter will be delivered the next day — will rise from $6.10 to $6.40, while a single 500g Express Post satchel are set to rise from $10.85 to $11.35.

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

The cost of posting a letter to the United States, United Kingdom and Europe will increase by 5c to $3.

But the cost of stamps, posting Christmas cards within Australia and business mail will remain unchanged after regular stamps were increased from 70 cents to $1 last year.

Australia Post defended the price hikes, which it said were needed to meet the rising costs of delivery.

“For most products, this is the first price increase in over 12 months,” the government-owned corporation said in a statement.

“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.

“These pricing changes will ensure we can continue to invest in our large and trusted delivery network, covering more than 4000 post offices and 11.6 million delivery points each day.”

Some parcels destined to New Zealand and Great Britain will become cheaper, the statement said.

Australia Post’s acting chief executive said in August that the parcels business was the cornerstone of the remarkable turnaround the organisation enjoyed under former chief executive Ahmed Fahour, who turned a $222 million full-year loss in 2015 into a profitable venture.

However, declining letters volume is putting pressure on Australia Post’s bottom line.

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