Higher delivery costs and an ailing letter delivery service are being blamed by Australia Post for the rising costs for sending parcels and other services.
The cost of posting a prepaid 5kg parcel will increase by between 30 and 55 cents from 2 March 2015. And customers who opt to use their own packaging, rather than a prepaid option, will be charged between 25 and 45 cents more.
Customers who use the local country parcel service will see an increase in charges of up to 9.6 per cent.
Mail redirection fees and mail holding fees will increase by six per cent. And while increases have been made to post office box leases for new customers, existing customers will also see an increase of an average eight per cent from 1 April 2015. Pay on time discounts will remain. Australia Post spokeswoman Michelle Skehan said that the increase in post office box leasing fees would benefit those licensed post office owners who are battling against the declining mail service.
Businesses will also see an increase in services used which are provided by Australia Post and whether or not these costs are passed onto the end consumer, only time will tell.
Last year Australia Post’s profit dropped by 34.5 per cent to $116.2 million, with its letters division suffering a loss of $328.4 million.
“These price increases will allow us to partially offset the growing losses that we are seeing in our letters business and the increasing operating costs to deliver our other products and services,” said Ms Skehan.
For full details of pricing changes, visit AusPost.com.au
