Australia Post is proposing to offer customers more time to collect their parcels from August 1 by extending the length of time a parcel will be held before being returned to sender.
Parcels are currently held for 10 days before being returned to sender. Under the proposal, from August 2016 parcels will be held for to up to 30 days, with a small fee charged for this service after five days, payable on collection. Australia Post’s MyPost customers will continue to receive ten days free of charge.
Customers will be charged A$3 (US$2.24) per week, payable after 10 business days for MyPost customers, or five days for non-MyPost customers. The maximum charge will be AU$9 (US$6.7), payable after 16 business days. The majority of the fee will be paid to post office operators who will be storing the parcels.
Most customers pick up their parcel quickly, with 92% of parcels collected within five days. Australia Post believes this service will help the small amount of customers (approximately 8%) who can’t collect their parcel straight away.
In response to this news, the Post Office Agents Association Limited (POAAL) released a statement saying that the project had the potential to cause customer angst. “Licensees and staff serving on the counter would be in the front line for customer complaints,” said POAAL director Bob Chizzoniti.
“Australia Post’s aim may be to encourage customers to collect their parcels from the post office as soon as possible, but Australia Post really needs to focus on increasing first time delivery rates so that parcels don’t end up at the post office,” Chizzoniti added.
May 4, 2016