<
https://theconversation.com/post-apocalypse-the-end-of-daily-letter-deliveries-is-in-sight-201094>
"Australia Post is seeing red. A lot of it.
After posting a razor-thin profit of $23.6 million in the last six months of
2022, it anticipates a loss for the full 2022-23 financial year – only the
second time since being corporatised in 1989.
The last loss was in 2014-15, following a $190 million investment in
“transformational reform” of Australia Post’s letters business. At the time, it
expressed confidence those efficiency improvements would allow it “to maintain
a five-day-a-week delivery”. Now it is pessimistic. With the ongoing collapse
in demand for letter delivery, it sees only more losses ahead.
That’s a huge problem, because Australia Post has two main obligations,
enshrined in federal legislation. It is required to operate on commercial
principles – that is, the federal government wants it to deliver a dividend –
while also meeting strict community service obligations.
Those obligations – established in 1989 and last reviewed in 2019 – require
delivering letters to 98% of all Australian addresses five days a week, and in
more remote areas to 99.7% of addresses at least twice a week, generally within
two days of posting.
The Morrison government temporarily relaxed those obligations between May 2020
and June 2021 so Australia Post could divert resources to its parcel delivery
services as online shopping boomed during the pandemic. Now the organisation
wants those community service obligations reduced permanently."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
