Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, upon notice, on 6 August 2012:

(1)   Does Australia Post verify each Licensed Post Office’s (LPOs) claim for payment for street carded articles; if so, how.

(2)   What is the rate of remuneration for the street carded articles for LPOs as opposed to the corporate offices.

(3)   Does Australia Post make approaches to large volume customers of mail/express post and parcel services and offer discounts or incentives to deal direct with Australia Post; if so, how does this impact on LPOs.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The answer to the honourable senator’s question is as follows:

(1)   Licensees receive payment to handle street carded articles as part of the Mail Management Fee (MMF), which is a fixed amount per delivery point, a fixed annual fee, or, subject to very many or very few articles, a negotiated fee.

Australia Post verifies payment claims from licensees for the MMF and the negotiated fee. For payments under the MMF, Australia Post audits delivery point records maintained by licensees. In relation to the negotiated fee, Australia Post verifies the number of articles through a count of the “Article Awaiting Collection” notifications which are retained from customers when carded articles are delivered.

(2)   The rate that licensees receive depends upon whether they are paid through the MMF (which includes other activities such as customer queries), the fixed fee which is currently $381.82 per annum or the negotiated fee which is site specific.

Corporate post offices operate under a different business model to licensed post offices and, therefore, comparisons are not practical.

(3)   The pricing structure for a range of products and services offered by Australia Post provides discounts and incentives to customers based on factors such as purchase/lodgement volumes and the level of pre-sortation undertaken.

These discounts and incentives form part of Australia Post’s overall offer to its customers. Subject to operational considerations, these discounts and incentives are available to customers transacting business with Australia Post through both our corporate and licensed outlets.