The end of daily mail: Australia Post to deliver letters every second day

Australia Post will permanently stop the daily delivery of letters after 200 years of distributing mail, in a bid to stay financially viable, moving to deliver regular mail every second day.

It’s the end of an era for Australia Post mail deliveries. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Christian Gilles

Australia Post will permanently stop the daily delivery of letters after 200 years of distributing mail, in a bid to stay financially viable.

While moving to deliver regular mail to every second day, the national mailing service has promised to distribute more parcels and ensure no posties will lose their job as part of the historic changes.

Labor made the announcement after Australia Post in August reported a $200m loss for the 2022-23 financial year, its second in more than three decades. This was despite the delivery of more than half a billion parcels over that time.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said Australia Post could not just “stand still” and needed to adapt to trends that had seen letter volumes decline by two thirds since 2008.

“These new processes will mean Australia Post continues to deliver the high-quality letter service many Australians rely on, while also growing its booming parcel business for the ­benefit of consumers, small businesses and its hardworking staff,” she said.

The changes to its community service obligations will allow Australia Post to reduce the frequency of regular letter deliver to every second day in 98 per cent of locations, while express and priority mail will continue to be delivered daily.

For the first half of their daily round, posties will deliver parcels and all mail, while focusing on only parcels, express and priority mail in the second half of their round.

No legislation will be required to make the changes to the publicly owned retailer, with the government due to update the necessary regulation next year.

The changes come after almost a year of consultation and more than 1000 submissions being made to a discussion paper launched in March.

Australia Post chief executive Paul Graham said the overhaul marked a significant day in Australia Post’s history.

“The changes to the frequency of letter delivery will enable us to focus on what matters most to Australians – fast and reliable parcel delivery with better tracking technology and quicker turnaround times for eCommerce,” he said.

“As eCommerce continues to boom and fewer and fewer Australians send letters, the changes to letters frequency announced today will free up our posties to also focus on parcels and pack­ages. This will further turbocharge eCommerce in Australia.”

While not ruling out increasing the price of stamps from $1.20 to $1.50 – a proposal that is being assessed by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission – Labor assured pensioners and concession card holders they could buy stamps at 60c.

Christmas stamps will also remain unchanged at 65c.

Communication Workers Union secretary Shane Murphy said the new proposed model – which will be slowly rolled out over 12 months – would allow posties to meet their changing day-to-day workloads without feeling they were falling behind.

“The new model recognises the changing needs of our communities and provides a sustainable pathway for improving the efficiency of parcel deliveries,” he said.