IT is good to see Wodonga businessman Peter White pursue his calls for a review into Australia Post’s letter sorting and delivery service.
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Mr White questioned Australia Post’s service after a letter he mailed took more than a week to reach its destination – less than two kilometres away.
He wants a mail sorting centre in Wodonga, it is now sent to Seymour for sorting.
Australia Post estimates a letter posted in the 3690 postcode will be delivered in the same postcode between two and six days.
The organisation’s delivery time calculator also says a letter posted in Wodonga should be delivered to all Australian capital cities inside the same two-to-six-day window.
Mr White has now raised his concerns with Member for Indi Cathy McGowan who vowed to make formal representations to Communications Minister Mitch Fifield after urging Mr White to write to the minister.
Australia Post is still a wholly government-owned business but it does not receive tax-payer funding. Instead it must operate as a fully self-funding business.
This means it is subject to changes in not only the domestic business environment, but globally as well.
Like many organisations, the emergence of the digital world has hit Australia Post hard as customers opt for instant news and letter delivery via tools such as Email over traditional letters in the mail.
Twelve months ago Australia Post announced its first loss in 30 years.
Large decreases in addressed and stamped mail led to a $381 million loss in the mail delivery side of the business.
The business has undertaken a major restructure to focus on parcel delivery – which has increased as more people shop online.
Last month Australia Post returned to profit, on the back of strong parcel/courier performance and re-structuring – but its mail performance reached an all time low.
Australia Post is a vital government service provider and needs to remain so. Increased costs and even more delivery time blowouts could by the norm if the government was to privatise it.
Privatisation puts the focus firmly on profit and service delivery needs to be the priority in some fields, especially for rural and regional Australia.
Postal delivery is one of those fields, just like telecommunication and transport and we can see what privatisation has meant for delivery of those services in rural and regional Australia.
