What's happening at Australia Post?

9th October 2007

World Post Day - 9 October 2007

Tuesday 9 October 2007 is World Post Day. The day has been celebrated each year on 9 October, since 1969, to mark the anniversary of the Universal Postal Union’s (UPU) establishment in 1874.

The UPU has 191 member countries, including Australia, and is the second oldest international organisation after the international telecommunication union.

Did you know?

• The first known postal document was found in Egypt and dates from 225BC.
  In Australia, postal services began in 1809 when a former convict called Isaac Nicholls was appointed postmaster to the colony of New South Wales.
  
• 82 per cent of the world’s population benefits from home mail deliveries.
  
• Australia Post delivers to just over 10 million address points around the country.
  
• Each day, 1.2 billion letters are posted, representing 431 billion domestic items per annum handled by postal administrations around the world. Six billion parcels are sent by post annually – around 16 million each day.
  
• Australia Post staff process around 21 million items of mail each day – 5.42 billion mail articles each year.
  
• Postal services employ close to 5.5 million people making it one of the largest employers in the world.
  
• Australia Post employs almost 35,000 people. Our extended family of licensed post office operators, community postal agents, mail and parcel contractors swells the population by a further 10,000 people.
  
• There are more than 665,000 permanent post offices worldwide, making postal institutions one of the most extensive networks on the planet.
  
• Australia Post has 4,462 post offices across Australia – 2,563 in rural and remote areas. The retail network – the largest in Australia – serves 1.1 million customers each business day.
  
• Australia’s basic postage rate is one of the lowest in the world. The US rate is equivalent to 51 cents, the UK 67 cents, Japan 88 cents and Switzerland $1.17.
  
• Australia Post has a long history of innovation and world firsts – the first country to introduce pre-paid postage (1838); the world’s first pictorial stamp issue called ‘Sydney Views’ was issued in 1849; the first country to implement a four digit postcode system (1967); the first country to launch Personalised Stamps (1999).

16 August 2007

June Quarter Delivery Results

Australia Post has again exceeded its delivery standard according to the most recent review, independently audited by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

Across Australia for the quarter ended June 2007, 96.5 percent of domestic letters were delivered early or on time, and 99.0 percent within one day of Australia Post’s customer service standard.

According to Australia Post’s customer service standard, 94 percent of domestic mail must be delivered within specific time periods. For example: For standard size letters placed in a post box before 6pm, Australia Post undertakes to deliver that letter within the same metropolitan area by the next business day.

Across Australia, delivery targets were exceeded in every state. Tasmania was again the strongest performer with 98.0 percent, followed very closely by the Australian Capital Territory 97.2% and Queensland 97.0%. The national average was 95.8 per cent.

To ascertain whether Australia Post is meeting its delivery targets, the ‘travel’ of domestic letters is monitored using radio frequency identification technology and a network of more than 2,000 members of the public across Australia. The results are independently audited by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

“We continue to see gains from our investments both in technology and our people. These results demonstrate a real team effort at Australia Post and are something that the Australian public can be proud of,” said spokesperson Melanie Powell.

“This quarter’s strong results reconfirm that Australia Post is amongst the best postal services in the world this is a credit to our thirty five thousand employees across the country,” she said.

6 February 2007

Australia Post – Delivering at a record rate

The Australian postal service is performing at the highest level of reliability since external monitoring began in 1993. Australia Post is required to deliver 94 percent of domestic mail in accordance with its stated service standard, a target which it has consistently met. For the six months to December 2006, 96.4 percent of domestic letters were delivered on time or early and 99 percent within one day of the service standard.

The December quarter is traditionally a difficult one for Australia Post as mail volumes more than double in the lead-up to Christmas, however the December 2006 monitor shows that 95.9 percent of mail was delivered on time or early. Across Australia, delivery targets were exceeded in every state. The Australian Capital Territory was the strongest performer with 97.6 percent, followed very closely by Tasmania 97.4 percent.

The delivery performance is monitored for Australia Post by Research International using radio frequency identification technology and a network of more than 2000 members of the public across Australia. The results are independently audited by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

“The results demonstrate again that Australian’s enjoy one of the best postal services in the world. The performance is a credit to the thirty five thousand people across the country who make up Australia Post, said spokesperson Matt Pollard.

Australia Post has invested heavily in automated processing equipment enabling it to keep pace with changing customer expectations and maintain one of the lowest priced basic postage services in the world.

“Research shows that mail delivers superior results for business and is strongly preferred by customers for all manner of important transactions”, Mr Pollard said.

March 2006

IMPORTANT NOTICE
Changes to Print Post Service
Dear valued customers,
We have received information from Australia Post, that there will be some changes required for Print Post service from now on. For more information, please click on the pdf document.