Regular readers will know how much I love snail mail and what I can do for well marketed businesses so I was disappointed to read the following in a recent edition of The Age:
“Emma Koehn reports that Australia Post expects households will be receiving less than one letter a week by the end of the decade as it faces the fallout of an unstoppable decline in snail mail, but the group still has high hopes about the growth of parcel delivery volumes.
The postal carrier’s chief executive , Paul Graham, said mail deliveries were a major drag on the company’s business and all options were on the table, including reviewing the frequency of letter deliveries. He is optimistic, however, about the prospects for parcel post thanks to the boom in online shopping.
Australia Post yesterday revealed losses in its letters business almost tripled in the December half and the company was heading for a full-year loss for the first time since 2015.
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“All options are on the table,” Graham said. “The simple fact is that Australians are not sending mail and not receiving mail. A lot of the mail that people receive, the vast majority is business-related, it’s bank statements, it’s your electricity bill. All those companies are moving to digital – we have no control over that.
“We are looking at all avenues to ensure we have a sustainable mail business. That includes the way that we structure operations, that includes the frequency, all those things are on the table.”
Any major changes to delivery operations would ultimately be the government’s decision though, and would only occur after consultation with a range of stakeholders, he said. The postal workers’ union called on the company to find new streams of revenue rather than cutting services and jobs, with the most vulnerable in society making up a large percentage of Australians who still rely on paper letters.
“If Australia Post are intending to take the razor to anything, it should be to management bonuses,” said the Victorian Branch secretary of the Communication Workers Union, Leroy Lazaro.
Losses in Australia Post’s letters delivery business ballooned to $189.7 million in the December half, widening 171.5 per cent from last year. Overall, the company’s profit before tax slumped 88.2 per cent to $23.6 million in the six months to December, on revenue of $4.69 billion . “We expect annual [letter] volumes will decline further, with Australian households receiving less than one letter per week by the end of the decade,” Graham said.
“We are still quietly confident that the overall market has got growth in it,” he said.
Australia Post is watching the RBA’s interest rate rises closely to gauge their effect on consumer spending, but Graham said budget focused shoppers were actually turning to online shopping more.
So, it’s up to you folks! Keep those cards and letters rolling out. I’d hare to see wonderful snail mail vanish from our marketing armoury!
Copyright © The Age 2023 This article is from the February 9 issue of The Age Digital Edition. To subscribe, visit “https://www.theage.com.au“.
My brother-in-law got a temp position at the US Postal Service. After 2 years, he’s a manager of 45 postal employees. He became a US Citizen about 10 years ago. MOST of what he does is taking in business to package and ship goods at a really fair price. It’s gone from primarily Letter delivery to full-service fulfillment for marketers. Smart!
Yes, parcels are making lots of money for Postal Services around the world although many, being government type organisations, still run at a loss. And the snail mail I love is becoming a nuisance to them.
Congrats to you brother-in-law by the way.