Australia Post yesterday increased prices for parcels, express post and some bulk mail productsby an average of 3.8% following approval by the country’s consumer protection organisation.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) had earlier decided that it had noobjection to the price rises for some bulk business mail services. The basic postage rate of A$0.60remained unchanged, however.
The increases, originally planned for April, had been justified on the grounds of risingoperating costs and would help the postal operator to provide self-sustaining and viableservices.
This is only the third general price increase to PreSort mail since 1992, with the key PreSortprice having risen by less than 1 cent since 1992, the postal operator said. This represents only a1.5% price increase; by comparison, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the same period hasincreased by more than 64%.
“We think it’s a modest price increase that is fair and reasonable given the current pressuresfacing us,” said Executive General Manger Postal Services Jim Marshall. “Every year we areincreasing our delivery points by 200,000 new addresses and predict that in 10 years it will be theequivalent of another Queensland being added to our delivery network. At the same time, costs keepincreasing, and letter volumes continue to decline, with our letters business losing over $170mlast financial year.”
He added: “While the increase will vary, we predict the average increase for business customerswill be around 3.8%.”
Following the recent fuel surcharges announced by other transport companies, Australia Post willalso be introducing a fuel surcharge in July to cover the increase in the cost of fuel in recenttimes. This surcharge is equal to a 1% increase in price. However it will not apply to domesticletters or affect the 60 cent stamp.
