this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2023
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Australia Post reports $200m annual loss, its first since 2015, amid push to close city branches (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 1 year ago by Mountaineer@aussie.zone to c/australia@aussie.zone
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[–] Mountaineer@aussie.zone 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You've taught me something: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Postal_Union

I can't find anywhere listing what we get in UPU fees for things coming into Australia from China, but I have recently ordered items for a few dollars which have not charged me for postage.

This is head torch, for 77c, that will be posted to me for free from China.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004823147597.html

This page lists the cheapest domestic package I can send from the Adelaide CBD to another Adelaide CBD address:
https://auspost.com.au/parcels-mail/calculate-postage-delivery-times/#/option/domestic/5000/5000
$10.60

Something doesn't add up here.
The minimum cost of anything coming out of China should be the UPU, completely ignoring handling, packaging and the item itself.

So either Aliexpress/China is subsidizing sending crap over here, or Australia Post is not getting the fees.

edit: Page 111 of the annual report: https://auspost.com.au/content/dam/auspost_corp/media/documents/2021-australia-post-annual-report.pdf
shows in 2020, Australia Post had a $4.3M Foreign exchange loss (net).
Which is honestly WAY better than I was expecting.

[–] SteveTech@programming.dev 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I can't find anywhere listing what we get in UPU fees for things coming into Australia from China

IIRC there's an excel spreadsheet somewhere with the pricing, but it's in the UPUs own currency or something like that.

The minimum cost of anything coming out of China should be the UPU.

I'm pretty sure 'free shipping' is just someone else eats the cost of shipping.

Edit:

Keeping in mind that I have no idea how to properly read this, as for the pricing it looks like in 2016 letter post from Hong Kong to Sydney was 0.538 SDR per KG, which was about AU$1.03 per KG.

Also the 77c for the head torch is a one time welcome deal, it shows up as $8.97 for me when logged in. So Aliexpress is probably just making a loss in hopes to make a profit from you later.

[–] Mountaineer@aussie.zone 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Keeping in mind that I have no idea how to properly read this, as for the pricing it looks like in 2016 letter post from Hong Kong to Sydney was 0.538 SDR per KG, which was about AU$1.03 per KG.

Interesting, so on face value, that works out to about $5 for a max 5kg package to arrive from China, whereas the same 5kg package within Australia would be $10.60.
Either Australia Post is taking a loss on every international package, or making a big profit on every national package.
Possibly both, where one offsets the other.
Whilst that would keep Australia Post solvent, it has externalities, simplistically it's a tarif on local manufactured product.
That cannot be a desirable outcome, especially as China already has a $/man hour advantage.

Also the 77c for the head torch is a one time welcome deal, it shows up as $8.97 for me when logged in. So Aliexpress is probably just making a loss in hopes to make a profit from you later.

Yeah, entirely possible. I haven't ordered one of these and don't intend to, but I just bought some screw drivers etc for ~ $8, which means they would have to make them for like $4 to turn a profit.

[–] SteveTech@programming.dev 2 points 1 year ago

Whilst that would keep Australia Post solvent, it has externalities, simplistically it’s a tarif on local manufactured product.

I've also heard that Amazon and similar 'mass senders' have special deals with postage companies, so most locally manufactured stuff would probably be fairly cheap to post, and they increase the price for normal people to send.