Why Australia Post's pricing system unfairly punishes small business
Anaita reacts to a business owner's test showing that identical parcels get charged completely differently depending on whether you use Australia Post's prepaid satchel or your own packaging, exposing what she calls a greedy monopoly pricing system. She explains that Australia Post also shifts blame and cost onto brands for lost parcels unless extra insurance is paid, which is why her business switched to a shipping aggregator and saved over $10,000 in a month.
The lessons
Test your carrier's pricing consistency by sending identical parcels with different packaging or postage to expose unfair charges.
Know that using your own packaging instead of a carrier's prepaid satchel can double your shipping cost for the same product.
Switch to a shipping aggregator to access better carrier rates and cut shipping costs significantly.
Understand that carriers can shift blame and cost for lost parcels onto your brand unless you pay for extra insurance.
Questions people ask
Why did this business switch away from Australia Post?
The business owner and Anaita found Australia Post's pricing to be unfair and inconsistent, charging different rates for identical parcels depending on packaging type, and pushing liability for lost parcels back onto the brand unless insurance was purchased. Switching to other carriers through a shipping aggregator ended up saving the business over $10,000 in a single month.
Transcript
to prove how screwed their entire system is and how it's set up for our small businesses to fail. I have received an order from a customer in Brisbane for 2 jars of jam, and I'm going to send them this order via Australia Post, except I've duplicated the order. I'm going to send it in the exact same box, the exact same 2 jars. The box weighs the same, the box is the same dimensions, except for this box here, I've underpaid the postage knowingly.
This box here, I have knowingly overpaid. I absolutely love this video and I can't wait for part 2. This business owner from The Paddington Pantry has intentionally overpaid for one and underpaid for another parcel. Same parcel, same products going into it.
And she knows for a fact that she is going to get a fee for underpaying, but she's not going to hear back from Australia Post about overpaying. I feel like I've said this a thousand times, but Australia Post has one of the most unfair pricing systems I've ever seen. And they can get away with being like this because they essentially have a monopoly over the shipping system in Australia. The way that they're greedy is that if you send something in their prepaid satchel, the same product, same weight, same size, you'll get charged one fee.
If you use your own packaging and it's the same product, same weight, same size, everything is the same, you tape it down to make sure it's the same, you'll get charged sometimes double what you paid. Not only that, but if you send a parcel to a customer and it gets lost, it's not their fault, it's the brand's fault. The customer will go to the brand and blame the brand. The brand will have to pay for another shipment, another cost of goods, and Australia Post says, well, you didn't pay for insurance.
And because you didn't do that, we don't— we don't have to do our job properly because you didn't pay that extra amount. So what am I paying for? I paid you to get my parcel from point A to point B, but then you also want me to pay extra just so that you can do your job? The greediness of it all is why we have stopped using Australia Post for a lot of our shipments.
We have started using other carriers, and we do that through a shipping aggregator. Not only has it been better for us, but we've actually saved a lot of money. Like, I'm talking over $10,000 in the last month.
