Amazing delivery

[Big Shed]

Ordered a CNC timing pulley and belt on 9/2/15 from China, it arrived yesterday 17/2/15, in an amazing 8 days.

The whole order cost me $16.50 including postage and the Chinese seller included a $5 discount voucher to take off my next order (any value it says) by 4/4/15.

What really amazed me is that the parcel (one of those white plastic bags) had printed on it Deutsche Post and marked postage paid Frankfurt-Allemagne.

Looks like the international parcel delivery business is hotting up, especially with Toll being bought by Japan Post.

Maybe the Australian Government should have sold off Australia Post.

[KBs PensNmore]

It certainly is amazing that it can come from half way around the world, in 8 days, but can take 9 days from Queensland. I quite often buy stuff from the USA and again 8 - 10 days, come on Australia Post lift your game.
Kryn

[Old-Biker-UK]

Same here in the UK.
Two digital clock movements from China - less than £2 post free, arrived in 10 days.
Would cost me that to post it to the next town 10 miles away.

Mark

[Mulgabill]

Yes!! I have had recent similar experience. Seven days from China.:2tsup:
Another recent experience with Auspost was 8 days from Qld. The Auspost Tracking showed posted in Qld arrived in Vic 3 days later, 2 days later back in Qld, 3 days later delivery back in Vic.??? Go figure!!!:no:

[Big Shed]

Had a similar experience with Aust Post.

Posted 2 parcels at the same time, one to Carrum Downs in Vic, one to a Brisbane suburb.

Both parcels arrived in Brisbane after 5 days, then the Vic parcel went back to Vic and eventually arrived after travelling for a total of 10 days! Can't say we didn't get value for money:rolleyes:

So the tracking works, all they have to get right is their sorting:wink:

[lesmeyer]

One of the problems I have noted with some (not all) of the Aussie retailers is that it takes them 2-4 days to ship the darn thing. All part of the service chain I guess :U.
Les

[ian]

reading those experiences, what I don't get is how AusPost can first time deliver a parcel that's come from overseas, while at the same time domestic parcels are sent on round trips

[Big Shed]

reading those experiences, what I don't get is how AusPost can first time deliver a parcel that's come from overseas, while at the same time domestic parcels are sent on round trips

What I also don't get is how Aust Post does the final delivery of parcels from China that if posted here would cost more than cost of the Chinese item which includes postage from China.

I had a twin cigarette lighter thingo for in the car delivered from China. The whole thing including postage from China was about $6.00.
If I wanted to post this item, even within Victoria, the postage would exceed that. If posted outside Vic, a small parcel satchel would cost me about $8.50 - go figure.

No wonder Japan Post reckon they want a part of the parcel delivery business by taking over Toll.

Maybe Aust Post should get in on the overseas action as well, or they may become a take over target for the likes of Deutsche Post and Japan Post (or even TNT which is quite a player in parcel and mail delivery in Europe).

[ian]

What I also don't get is how Aust Post does the final delivery of parcels from China that if posted here would cost more than cost of the Chinese item which includes postage from China.

I had a twin cigarette lighter thingo for in the car delivered from China. The whole thing including postage from China was about $6.00.
If I wanted to post this item, even within Victoria, the postage would exceed that. If posted outside Vic, a small parcel satchel would cost me about $8.50 - go figure.this one I do get.

there's a suite of international treaties and agreements covering how international calls and mail are handled.

Essentially, the shipper in China pays the Chinese postal service the Chinese rate, of which some small amount goes to AusPost to deliver the package within AUS.

The "theory" behind the agreement is that the volume of international mail is approximately balanced in each direction, so what AusPost loses delivering Chinese parcels in AUS it makes back on parcels destined for China.
This might be true in Europe but is way off for AUS.

A similar arrangement applies with international phone calls -- it's much cheaper to ring AUS from the US than the other way round.

[Big Shed]

Yes Ian, I was aware of the arrangements, but like you I can't see the logic in it.

It looks like Aust Post is not handling the transition to the digital age all that well.

In particular it is allowing private companies to steal their thunder on parcel delivery.

For instance I just sold an electric motor which needed to be delivered to Dandenong Vic. As the weight was over 20kg, Aust Post didn't want to know, it went via e-go and cost $23 - deliver to depot in Bendigo - pick up depot in Dandenong. The depot in Bendigo was Toll. Toll is also rolling out parcel depots in newsagents around Australia - Aust Post could have easily done that with all the LPOs and their own post offices.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-23/australia-post-forecasts-loss-as-profit-drops-56pc/6215334


(http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-23/australia-post-forecasts-loss-as-profit-drops-56pc/6215334)

[ian]

For instance I just sold an electric motor which needed to be delivered to Dandenong Vic. As the weight was over 20kg, Aust Post didn't want to know, it went via e-go and cost $23 - deliver to depot in Bendigo - pick up depot in Dandenong. The depot in Bendigo was Toll. Toll is also rolling out parcel depots in newsagents around Australia - Aust Post could have easily done that with all the LPOs and their own post offices.
I sort of get why this is so

23kg is too heavy for manual lifting -- the typical WH&S limit is 20kg.

Toll depots have mechanical handling equipment -- fork lifts, etc -- AusPost doesn't
the doors of my local PO are too narrow to get a pallet through and the internal space can't really be configured to allow a pallet jack to be moved around.

Don't overlook that most POs are essentially shop fronts and many landlords don't take kindly to any sort of trolley being wheeled through the front door.

[Big Shed]

How does Toll overcome these problems with their newsagent network then?

The average newsagent shop is not unlike an LPO.

As for the larger stuff, don't forget that AusPost owns 100% of StarTrack Express - have they used this (very efficient and accomplished) transport network to improve the services to the public?

Not that I have seen.

Here in Bendigo the StarTrack Express depot is within shouting distance of the Toll depot.

Saw the CEO of AusPost on the news tonight, all he could think of was to blame the govt for not lifting AusPost service obligation and saying that basic letter stamps should be $1 and if you wanted daily deliveries you would have to pay more.
How very creative, your volume is going down, so you increase the price and reduce the service, as a result of which your volume is going down again and then............

You fill in the dots.

[ian]

How does Toll overcome these problems with their newsagent network then?

The average newsagent shop is not unlike an LPO.

As for the larger stuff, don't forget that AusPost owns 100% of StarTrack Express - have they used this (very efficient and accomplished) transport network to improve the services to the public?

Not that I have seen.

Here in Bendigo the StarTrack Express depot is within shouting distance of the Toll depot.

Saw the CEO of AusPost on the news tonight, all he could think of was to blame the govt for not lifting AusPost service obligation and saying that basic letter stamps should be $1 and if you wanted daily deliveries you would have to pay more.
How very creative, your volume is going down, so you increase the price and reduce the service, as a result of which your volume is going down again and then............

You fill in the dots.
From the ABC News story

"Mail that's sent is sent by corporations and governments, that's 97 per cent of the volume," Mr Fahour observed.
it won't be too long before most of this volume will likely disappear -- replaced by email -- regardless of what AusPost does with the price.

it's the people who post the remaining 3% of current mail who will need to pay for the service into the future.
And how many of the 3% are pensioners who already get a discount?

[Vernonv]

How does Toll overcome these problems with their newsagent network then?I'd bet that they have weight/size limits for items dropped at the newsagent.


Saw the CEO of AusPost on the news tonight, all he could think of was to blame the govt for not lifting AusPost service obligation and saying that basic letter stamps should be $1 and if you wanted daily deliveries you would have to pay more.
How very creative, your volume is going down, so you increase the price and reduce the service, as a result of which your volume is going down again and then............

You fill in the dots.You are not really comparing apples with apples. AP does very well out of parcel services, however is dragged down by it's regular mail services. If AP could dump it's mail obligations, it would immediately become profitable and be able to compete directly with the likes of Toll. So it doesn't really take a rocket surgeon to see that that the AP CEO is dead on the money ... maybe to level the playing field, the government should force the other players in the market to take a share of the regular mail services. :)

[Big Shed]

Coming full circle back to AusPost subsidising deliveries from overseas, particularly China.

IMHO they would be better off addressing that imbalance rather than trying to make their letter delivery business profitable, it is a downward spiral.

Why should the Australian taxpayer (yes we still own AusPost) subsidise Chinese businesses selling cheap widgets on Ebay with "free" postage?

I also don't see why AusPost makes this distinction between the letter business and the parcel business. After all a lot of the handling involved in both is the same for letters and parcels, so there must be some clever distinctions being drawn between the two to enable them to make a "loss" on one and a "profit" on the other.
There is some very political manoeuvring going on here.

[Big Shed]

From the ABC News story

"Mail that's sent is sent by corporations and governments, that's 97 per cent of the volume," Mr Fahour observed.
it won't be too long before most of this volume will likely disappear -- replaced by email -- regardless of what AusPost does with the price.

it's the people who post the remaining 3% of current mail who will need to pay for the service into the future.
And how many of the 3% are pensioners who already get a discount?

Pensioners don't really get a discount as such, they can buy 50 stamps per year at 60c rather than 70c.

Where the biggest discounts are applied is to those corporations and government departments. Perhaps they should look at their pricing in the 97% area, rather than the 3% area?

[Vernonv]

I also don't see why AusPost makes this distinction between the letter business and the parcel business. After all a lot of the handling involved in both is the same for letters and parcels, so there must be some clever distinctions being drawn between the two to enable them to make a "loss" on one and a "profit" on the other.Very simple ... the cost to the consumer. To post a letter from A to B costs $0.70, but say a 500g stachel posted from A to B costs $8.50. AP are forced to keep the letter postage cost low, but have free rein when it comes to parcels. None of the other players have such restrictions in place.

Not sure there is any political manoeuvring going on ... it is simply an unfair/unlevel playing field, biased towards those who are not forced to maintain an unprofitable service.

[ian]

Coming full circle back to AusPost subsidising deliveries from overseas, particularly China.

IMHO they would be better off addressing that imbalance rather than trying to make their letter delivery business profitable, it is a downward spiral.

Why should the Australian taxpayer (yes we still own AusPost) subsidise Chinese businesses selling cheap widgets on Ebay with "free" postage? good luck with negotiating this one. You pay the Chinese exporter $6.40 for the item plus postage and when it arrives, AusPost charges you $20 to deliver it.

I'm going to duck




I also don't see why AusPost makes this distinction between the letter business and the parcel business. After all a lot of the handling involved in both is the same for letters and parcels, so there must be some clever distinctions being drawn between the two to enable them to make a "loss" on one and a "profit" on the other.
There is some very political manoeuvring going on here.Nope. there's a world of difference between the letter and parcel businesses.

the 97% of mail originating from corporations and the government is typically processed by a specialist company.
for example your bank sends the details for your monthly credit card bill to a mailing house who prints the bill, folds it, places it in an envelope, and sorts the envelopes into bundles containing just those bills your postie needs for your street.
For doing all this work for AusPost the mailing house gets a substantial discount compared to mail placed in a road side letter box.

the processing works because every Australian mail address has a bar code -- it's the orange bars you can see on some letters.

[Big Shed]

Hmm, maybe I am not the only one under-whelmed by Mr Fahour?

Note his salary as compared to the same person at US Post, something like 10x more?

http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2015/02/25/australia-post-boss-ahmed-fahour-keep-job/


(http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2015/02/25/australia-post-boss-ahmed-fahour-keep-job/)

[lesmeyer]

Poor thing Mr. Fahour only earning 4.8mil a year. When I was at NAB he was #2 and earned 15mil a year (he earned more than #1 because he was "worth it" and was specifically head hunted from Citi Group we were told). What a step down :U
Les

[Bob38S]

Poor thing Mr. Fahour only earning 4.8mil a year. When I was at NAB he was #2 and earned 15mil a year (he earned more than #1 because he was "worth it" and was specifically head hunted from Citi Group we were told). What a step down :U
Les

I don't really believe that anyone is "worth it" when we are talking those sorts of numbers.

What do these people actually do?

Apart from from cutting some "fat" which probably could have stayed except for their obscene payments or making lame excuses as to why the company isn't performing and why it is not their fault - what do they actually do or contribute?

I do agree with paying a premium for quality eg cream on the milk, but when they start talking those figures it becomes obscene and should be considered the scum on the slops. Then, quite often, even an underperforming so called Captain of Industry gets an enormous bonus or performance benefit when clearly they should be given the boot.

Ceo's, Exec's, Admin's, are the ones we have, they all seem to be drawn from the same cesspool, the best we can get? - I don't think so. I Think we can do better than the "ringins" we have.

[Chris Parks]

A similar arrangement applies with international phone calls -- it's much cheaper to ring AUS from the US than the other way round.

I get international call rates via Telstra of 2c a minute which in my experience is way cheaper than US to Oz.

The internal postage movements in Oz are no mystery and I have explained them here before. Your international stuff is air freight and the internal stuff is road freight. You can fly China to Sydney in roughly the same time it takes to drive Sydney to Brisbane so it doesn't take a genius to work out that these days international air freight is just as quick or quicker than moving stuff internally in Oz via road freight. Back in the old days it was sea freight for all international parcels, them was the days of get it when it arrives. if posting in Oz you always have the option of sending it express which is always air freight but extend your credit card limit before you do.

[brontehls]

I deal with two suppliers in Sydney

With one I order on a Sunday night or Monday morning - the courier picks up Tuesday and turns up on Thursday morning $19.00 a box (they got confused once between Queensland and Queanbeyan and the boxes did a grand tour and the depot manager delivered them personally on a Saturday

With the other supplier - large light bags of cushion inserts we tried twice - the first time was successful and reasonably priced. For the second delivery they changed their policy from actual weight to weight by volume and the shipping cost jumped by 375% - I am driving down to pick up the next order - Australia Post has lost another customer

Other companies seem to be able to do this well - I ordered two 12kg bags of dogfood from a large chain just before lunch on Monday this week - delivery was $14.71 which I thought was reasonable as they were over $50 cheaper than anyone else, they had stock now etc. I e-mailed however to point out that I felt that Queanbeyan should count for the metropolitan Canberra discounted delivery (I assume that the delivery price is calculated on the postcode 2620 which covers a pretty large rural area as well).

Very prompt reply to tell me that they had referred problem to their managemnt and to the support people - had identified my order and were refunding the difference to my visa account

Dog food arrived 0830 Tuesday (coincidentally from the same courier who services my supplier in Sydney) and the refund was in my account this morning

Some companies seem to be able to do it well

Neil

[Chris Parks]

Do you expect a large light shipment to be charged at weight instead of volume? No one does that as far as I know. When I was the Clearvue distributor a cyclone body which weighs about 15KG was always shipped by volume at 98KG or thereabouts by TOLL. The fact that it happened once was a fluke and you were very lucky. Try another company such as TOLL and see how much it costs with them, you may be surprised.

[Vernonv]

... you may be surprised.And I doubt it will be a pleasant surprise.

[Handyjack]

I ordered a tool from Ideal Tools on a Wednesday for a job on the weekend. I required delivery by Friday.
The original courier (subsidiary of AP) picked up package on Thursday morning, but on Friday morning they had trouble delivering to a public hospital - could not follow directions or ring contact number. I saw a van of theirs on the site in the afternoon so at least one of their drivers can find the site.
Anthony of Ideal Tools resent the order with another courier who contacted me just before 4 (I had just left the site) but was happy to deliver it to my home and rang to let me know when it had been dropped off safely.

Some can deliver, some can't. Some go the extra effort and communicate, some don't.

Thank you to Anthony for making sure I had the order for the weekend.

[Handyjack]

This afternoon at work, which courier company (subsidiary of AP) delivered a package which I signed for? Package did not have a building number or gate number on it either.

Some drivers can find locations - some can't.

[Vernonv]

The road I live on is over 30km long and letters addressed with just our name and no street number never fail to get delivered. :)

[Enfield Guy]

I ordered 2 x 5/16 brad point drill bits from Veritas in Canada last wednesday evening. They arrived at my door in Brisbane yesterday before midday.

In contrast. A package I shipped to Melbourne last Tuesday morning has yet to arrive at it's destination and unsurprisingly, the customer is concerned.

Go figure!!

Cheers
Bevan

[AlexS]

I ordered 2 x 5/16 brad point drill bits from Veritas in Canada last wednesday evening. They arrived at my door in Brisbane yesterday before midday.

Cheers
Bevan
This is typical Lee Valley Veritas service. I've just had similar with some box locks I ordered - arrived in less than a week.

[Sir Stinkalot]

I sent a couple of Australia Post satchels from Adelaide to Melbourne last week. The fist one I provided the buyer with the tracking number. Out of interest I plugged in the tracking number to find only two entries, listing the morning it arrived in Melbourne and then it being delivered the same afternoon.

The second buyer contacted me saying that his tracking number was invalid. Sure enough it wasn't registering on the AP site. I had to try and convince the buyer it had been sent and shouldn't be far off. I explained the situation with the tracking number of the other buyer. Sure enough the same thing happened. The tracking number only became active when it arrived in Melbourne in the morning and it was delivered that afternoon.

Fortunately the delivery was within the expected time frames. The tracking numbers are just a waste of time.

[Vernonv]

I use a few of the 500g stachels (normal ones, not express) and they always appear on the tracking site as soon as I've purchased them (well when I check 10 or 15 minutes later). I assumed that they scan them at the counter and technology takes care of the rest.

[Sir Stinkalot]

I use a few of the 500g stachels (normal ones, not express) and they always appear on the tracking site as soon as I've purchased them (well when I check 10 or 15 minutes later). I assumed that they scan them at the counter and technology takes care of the rest.

Mine were normal ones, not express. Both purchased over the counter (at different post offices) but posted in a street box at a later time. I can only suspect that there was an issue with scanning the satchels at the Adelaide sorting centre and dispatch centre at the airport (if they are different). Both were scanned and registered on arrival in Melbourne and then again when delivered.

Fortunately the delivery times were fine, just not the registering and tracking. It just makes it hard when the buyer is starting question your honesty / integrity as a seller as the tracking number you provided isn't showing up. I know if I was the buyer I would be starting to think I have lost my money on the purchase.

[Big Shed]

Apparently Mr Fahour has spat the dummy and resigned

Australia Post boss Ahmed Fahour resigns, despite profit rebound - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-23/australia-post-half-year-profit-surges/8296316)

[bueller]

Probably jumped before he was pushed. Absurd amount of money for a government employee to earn.

[Bob38S]

When the bright light of scrutiny is shone into the so called not in the public interest areas it is not surprising when what was there scuttles away.

PS, he's due for a $4.3 million retirement "bonus" when he turns 60. Not sure how he'll go getting a pension. :doh:

[Chris Parks]

Probably jumped before he was pushed. Absurd amount of money for a government employee to earn.

I don't blame him and he is not a government employee.

[bueller]

I don't blame him and he is not a government employee.
Semantics. It's a government owned entity.

[bueller]

So it looks like the government actually revoked the the board's ability to set the salary for the managing director of Aus Post, his replacement will be earning around a million once hired.

[Big Shed]

Trouble with that scenario is that there are already quite a few execs at Auspost that earn well above that level.

[Chris Parks]

The government really stuffed this one, who is silly enough to take a pay drop for a promotion? AP salary structure and the bonus system they work on is totally stuffed and has been for years. Who else would pay performance bonuses to their compensation dept execs to ensure they kept the claims down?

[Big Shed]

Who else would pay performance bonuses to their compensation dept execs to ensure they kept the claims down?

Cominsure and most other insurance companies I guess.

[Chris Parks]

Do they, you know this for a fact? I find the whole concept appalling to tell the truth. I had to fight them for 18 months after I was forced to pay and finance all my own recovery from a shoulder operation and in the end it cost them over 100K but if they had accepted the claim it would have been about 90K less. The lawyers got rich and I saw nothing except reimbursement of all expenses and sick leave.

[Big Shed]

It was certainly reported in the case of Cominsure not that long ago Chris, I have always understood that to be normal procedure in the insurance industry.