Australia Post

[Yenn]

Here we go again. Forget Christine Holgate and the fancy watches.

It is reported that one staffer on Australia Post has been given $500000 over the last 3 years.

Lucia Di Bartolomeo the chairman of the board, denied giving an average bonus of $168000 to those staffers who are on wages above3 to 4 hundred thousand dollars. He says it is short term incentives.

Here are people getting incentives way above what the average person gets in a year and running a business that cannot even do its basic job, which is to deliver letters. How many of our letters have gone astray lately. in the last few years several letters sent to me never arrived and several I sent to others also disappeared.

There is something very sick in our society when the rich want more and more and yet they still begrudge paying an honest wage.

[old man emu]

22 minutes ago, Yenn said:

There is something very sick in our society when the rich want more and more and yet they still begrudge paying an honest wage.

 

[red750]

We keep getting mail for someone a couple of streets away, and they get ours. The streets are Glenora Dr. and Caroben Av. Nothing alike. Do you need to read English to get a job as a postman (or mail sorter)?

[facthunter]

They contract those jobs out and are probably required to accept the Lowest bid. People use their own vehicles. Nev

[red750]

These are letters in the letterbox by the postie on the bike.

[facthunter]

They are sorted at another place supposedly in the right order for delivery.. My daughter used to be a Postie.. Nev

[Marty_d]

Read Terry Pratchett's "Going Postal".  That's the way to run a post office...

[Jerry_Atrick]

Re the bonuses.. Aussie Post (and most corporations) could not give a flying fart about how good or bad they are providing what they are paid to provide - they only give a flying fart about their bottom line.. if the bottom line has improved, bonuses abound. Despite any management competence or lack thereof, Australia Post seemed to do nicely out of the pandemic based on its parcel delivery service. It's not like you can get a refund if they screwed up your delivery, especially if your seller paid the delivery as part of the price of the product.

 

Profits up = bonuses.. The fact they can get away with a carp service and presumably cheaper overheads as a result is in itself a bonus. It really is that simple.

 

[onetrack]

The beauty of todays world is that AP no longer has the sole ability to carry parcels, and there are plenty of alternatives for parcel movement. There are plenty of sites that will bring together bids on your parcel job, such as Transdirect.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Ironically, though, the government hasn't privatised AP.. Why not? A booming business would surely be attractive to the private sector.. I guess it no longer has a monopoly...

 

They privatised the Royal mail here, and until the pandemic, you were pretty well in loss or stagnant territory until the pandemic hit.

 

 

[old man emu]

Under section 51(v) of the Constitution the Commonwealth Parliament has power to make laws with respect to postal, telegraphic, telephonic and other like services. Since 1901 the Commonwealth has used this power to reserve certain postal services to be conducted by government owned postal authorities. The Postmaster-General's Department was originally granted reserved services protection to carry all letters weighing up to one pound (500 grams).

 

Section 29 of the Australian Postal Corporation Act currently reserves to Australia Post the exclusive right to carry letters within Australia, whether the letters originate within or outside Australia. Generally speaking the principal services reserved to Australia Post are: the collection and delivery of all letters weighing no more than 250 grams, letters carried for a fee of less than $1.80 and all inward bound international letters.

 

The scope of Australia Post s reserved services monopoly was reduced by the previous Labor Government in 1994 with the passage of the Australian Postal Corporation Amendment Act 1994. This Act opened Australia Post to competition in six product areas namely:

domestic letters weighing between 250 and 500 grams

domestic letters carried for between $1.80 and $4.50, including

-   products linked to domestic letter prices, such as bulk discounts

-   newspapers, magazines, books, catalogues and leaflets directed to a particular person or address and enclosed in a cover

letters moved within document exchange networks Express Post, and international outward bound mail.

[nomadpete]

So. EMU, there is a rule. One which was changed somewhat back in 1994.

 

Clearly there is little preventing Australia Post from being privatised.

 

As a ex government bureaucrat clerk once told me :-

 

"Rule one - It's only money"

 

Rule two - It's only a stroke of a pen".

 

And there might be a bit of noise.

He was a great asset when we wanted to obtain any item that was a bit against the rules.

 

Our PMG used to be a service to the public but after the above process we now have multiple private businessess whose only remit is to make profit.

Edited February 18, 2022 by nomadpete

[old man emu]

2 hours ago, nomadpete said:

Our PMG used to be a service to the public but after the above process we now have multiple private businessess whose only remit is to make profit.

I see my error: I was thinking of Austpost, not Telstra.

[nomadpete]

Sarcastic, i guess.

 

However, the usual result of 'Privatisation to introduce competition - and reduce cost to the user'

 

Results in poorer service and increased cost to the user.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Nothing sarcastic at all..

 

There are instances where it does work the other way - apparently British Railways (nationalised) was so poorly run and strike-ridden that any attempt to renationalise any but the poorest performing operators is met with a chorus of opposition.,

 

These are the exceptions.

 

[Yenn]

Not sure what you are saying there jerry. Is British rail working well now? Are the trains on time and how expensive is rail travel.

I remember when I was stationed in Ellesmere in Shropshire in the army, that I could not get home and back to Hastings in Sussex on a 48 hour pass.

[Bruce Tuncks]

My next-door neighbor ( Burke ) in Alice Springs had a good thing going at the post office. Sometimes he would be given cash for a parcel and the customer would leave quickly. If nobody was watching, he would glue some old stamps on and pocket the money. His boss ( an SP bookie on the weekends ) told him to stop, but the guy had a devout catholic wife and about 9 kids to keep.

Poor old Burke was finally done in by a philatelist from Melbourne, and 2 postal inspectors arrived to get him... we thought they were pretty mean. Burke had to change his place of employment, but he was never charged. 

[Jerry_Atrick]

4 hours ago, Yenn said:

Not sure what you are saying there jerry. Is British rail working well now? Are the trains on time and how expensive is rail travel.

I remember when I was stationed in Ellesmere in Shropshire in the army, that I could not get home and back to Hastings in Sussex on a 48 hour pass.

I think you would have little problem. In general, the inter-city and commuter trains are fast, clean, comfortable., reliable,. and on time. Strike action is rare, and when a franchise doesn't perform, the government will take them over and prep it for sale with another franchise. Yes - it is expensive, though. Sadly, the UK government doesn't see rail transport as a public utility in the same way that French, German, or Austrian governments do.

 

There are still problems, especially oop norf... but the government has announced a massive investment program to help sort it out.

 

It will take you between 5.5 and 6.5 hours to get from Ellesmere Port to Hastings.. but will cost you £122 return (leave Friday evening, return Sunday midday for an arrival in the evening)..

 

 

 

[nomadpete]

Dare I say,

 

Cheaper to fly?

[Jerry_Atrick]

Indeed.... When I first moved to the South West, a return train ticket in peak hour was something like £140 in economy. My manager, who lived in Munich joked his return flight was £50..

[Yenn]

I don't think that the Ellesmere I was stationed at is Ellesmeer Port,

My first train journey when I was in the army was from Chatam to Blandford in Dorset, it only took about 6 hours.

[red750]

re: Australia Post.

 

You are not going to believe this ..... or maybe you will.

 

The cremation company who cremated my wife's body returns the ashes in an Australia Post Parcel Box clearly marked Signature Required.

 

We received a text this morning to say "Your parcel will be delivered today between 11.40 and 13.40. If there is no-one to sign for it, it will be taken to the closest post office for collection."

 

I sat in the lounge, 2 metres from the front door from 11.40.to 13.40.. There was no knock, not even a sound. At 13.40 I opened the door, and the parcel was sitting on the porch. Anyone could have picked it up and taken it - they would have got a surprise when they opened it.

 

This is the mob that rewards their senior executives with obscene bonuses and gifts. What's the bet they blame the delivery contractor.

[old man emu]

Don't tell us. Tell A Current Affair.

[Jerry_Atrick]

7 hours ago, red750 said:

What's the bet they blame the delivery contractor.

I am sure Australia has caught up with the rest of the world re basic corporate governance - one can delegate authority but one cannot delegate responsibility - in other words, iof you contract out something, you still have to have the controls in place to monitor they are doing the right thing...

 

 

[red750]