Letter deliveries could possibly be slashed by half if a brand new trial by Australia Post is rolled out throughout the nation.
Under a brand new trial, which can be expanded in coming months, common letters will solely be delivered each second day, whereas categorical publish and parcels will nonetheless be lived 5 days per week.
The change comes after Australia Post revealed it had misplaced $384 million on its letter companies.
On Thursday, Australia Post introduced a lack of $200 million for the 12 months to June 2023. It’s the second time that the service has recorded a loss because it was established as a authorities enterprise in 1989.
As the group’s operations transition in direction of parcel supply, fairly than letters, profitability has been more and more strained.
Currently, the typical Australian family receives solely 2.2 addressed letters every week, down from 8.5 every week in 2008. This quantity is anticipated to virtually halve within the subsequent 5 years.
But beneath neighborhood service obligations, Australia Post is required to take care of 4,000 publish workplaces. In the 2022 monetary 12 months it had 4,310 publish workplaces, 2,513 of those in rural and distant areas, which it claims price greater than $1.3bn to run.
While Australia Post’s letter business suffered heavy losses, its parcels and providers business continued to carry out strongly, recording income of $7.3bn in FY2023.
“The headwinds Australia Post is facing into aren’t new,” Australia Post chief government and managing director Paul Graham stated.
“We have a laser-like focus on simplifying our business, we’re stripping out the complexity accrued over a number of years and investing in our key growth area of parcels.”
“We now have a distinct two-speed business, with our Letters business weighing heavily on our eCommerce-driven Parcels business, retail and other services.”
Amid rising letter losses, Mr Graham referred to as on the federal authorities to pursue regulatory reforms to boost the service’s viability
“We have a clear plan and we’re doing everything we can within our control, however we need regulatory support,” he stated.
In March, Communications Minister Michele Rowland introduced the federal government would undertake a sweeping overview into Australia Post to make sure it remained financially viable.
Originally printed as Australia Post reveals grim warning on letter business after $200 million loss
Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au
