Christmas parcel promise
AUSTRALIA Posts insists it is “confident” in its ability to deliver tens of millions of parcels in time for Christmas.
“We are in good shape this year for Christmas,” chief executive Paul Graham told Senate estimates late on Monday evening.
Last year, 52 million parcels were delivered across December.
In preparation for the festive season the governmentowned business put the call out for 6000 new team members to join Australia Post over the Christmas peak.
“We are feeling quietly confident in our ability to meet the expectations of the community in relation to both our mail and particularly our parcel volumes,” Mr Graham said.
Last month, the postal service confirmed its domestic delivery deadlines for Christmas last month, warning parcels to most destinations Australia should be sent by December 12 to ensure they arrive on time.
International delivery times vary, but for standard parcels to the US, the cut-off is November 28, while packages sent to the UK should be posted by December 2.
Mr Graham was also grilled about the organisation’s plan to raise the price of stamps in January next year.
The change would mean a price hike of 10 cents to the basic postage rate, up from $1.10 to $1.20.
The prices of reserved ordinary large letters would also increase from $2.20 to $2.40 for letters up to 125g and from $3.30 to $3.60 for letters between 125g and 250g.
He told the senate hearing the cost to the average Australian household would be around $1.50 per year.
“We have not sought an increase in the stamp price for a number of years,” Mr Graham said.
“We do not see that as sustainable, albeit any cost increase is a burden to the taxpayer and the homeowner.”
But he said the organisation continued to experience a “significant decline” in personal mail being sent.
“So that cost could be even less,” Mr Graham added.