Got mail? In an historic switch up due to dramatic financial losses, Auspost has changed its post delivery model from every day to every second day. The model came into effect on 2 September at the Frenchs Forest Depot and is now active in the suburbs of Manly, Seaforth and Balgowlah, with the rest of the Northern Beaches expected to be in line with the new system by the end of October.
The update will not affect every day deliveries of parcels and express mail but will alter the delivery times of standard letters and unaddressed mail.
“Standard letters and unaddressed mail, like your bills, brochures and your Domino’s vouchers, those will be delivered every second business day,” an Auspost representative told Manly Observer.
“So what that would mean is that posties should have more capacity to deliver smaller parcels and things like that, every day.”
The system was implemented on 15 April but only made its way to the Northern Beaches two weeks ago. Before this, Auspost was mandated by the federal government to deliver ‘ordinary mail’ five days a week to 98 per cent of all delivery points and at least two days a week to 99.7 per cent of all delivery points.
These delivery points include street and roadside letter delivery boxes, post office private boxes, locked bags and private and community bags.
Since 2007/08 the number of delivery points in Australia has increased by around two million. The courier service reported a $360 million loss last year due to these letter deliveries and increased costs associated with more homes and businesses being added to AusPosts mandatory delivery service.
As a result, the Government decided to reduce the intensity of laws around letter delivery acknowledging that Australians are sending significantly fewer letters than in previous decades.
In the 2022/23 financial year, Australians sent around 1.5 billion letters, a dramatic decrease from when letters were last at their peak in 2007/08 when 4.6 billion were sent.
Trials for the new system have shown that posties can carry up to 20 per cent more parcels with the decrease in letter real estate; which is good news for those who indulge in this unprecedented era of online shopping.
However, those who still wish to get letters at their disposal daily can opt for priority letters. But, it’s worth noting this delivery time has now increased by one business day and will now take two to four business days to be delivered due to the new postal regulations.
“If there’s something that people want urgently, then we have products and services for that. And we would recommend that they look at some of those priority mail services or express post,” an Auspost representative said.
