Some hold enough strings professionally that they can negotiate fair treatment with their employers or move on....others are not so lucky to have this negotiating position of strength and are very vulnerable to exploitation and unions play a role here. Many do not have the financial or other means to defeat underhand tactics by themselves, laws or no laws.

The Small parcels are "all" allocated to Parcels, Star Traks included. The posties deliver at least 30 maybe 40 pct of them, that portion is not included in the mail accounts. Anything supposedly under 500 Grams, although you'll find posties are delivering 1kg parcels. Mail has been split into two under Ahmeds regime. It used to be that mail subsidised parcels, now that parcels makes a huge profit, It has been taken away for sale. My guess is that those parcels the posties deliver are part of Parcels profit to make the performance rate even better. Definitely not included with the mail though.

BTW you can get a parcel from the UK to Melbourne in 4 days with international Platinum express post.

It would be a good idea to split off the parcel division if it's making good profit as it would make the rest of the organisation more accountable. It would also make it more attractive to potentially sell off - making a good profit for the taxpayer. If the rest is not making money then it should be cut until it does. If it can't be then it should be sold off or asset stripped and the parts sold off

A 10kg M&S parcel costs GBP15 (under AUD30). How much would a 10kg international Platinum express post parcel cost?

My Australian passport has the following on the first page 'Her majesty Queen Elizabeth the second requests all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely'

Which is always comforting while cueing for an hour at heathrow immigration while euro riff raff pass on by in the fast lanes.

You can get parcels from outside Australia to locations inside faster, cheaper, and with less dumbness than you can get them moved internally. As for getting stuff out of Australia, you are better off bypassing Auspost as much as possible.

Seriously, they are already below an acceptable service level, and are trying desperately to get worse. Their base level service is China post level of service.

Obviously that is in her role as Queen of Australia though, so the UK govt/citizenry has no role/responsibility.

and it doesn't always work out slower anyway - flying back from Prague to Bristol, the EU queue was huge and the others queue non existent, so i breezed through on my Aussie passport rather than my UK one.

Always nice to have the choice...


S

Man what is it with Aus post. Wife with infant has been ordering some baby stuff and foolishly been ticking the Aus post option. These guys have been filling out the 'your were not in' slip and throwing it in the mail box without even ringing the bell. 3 times now. Bored housewife has been home all day. What a lazy bunch of tossers. Privatize ASAP.

It is private in all but name Star Track now run Parcels...... all of the parcel people are now contractors... welcome to your brave new world like so...


http://www.amazon.co.uk/forum/deals?...x2DRESNCLM4BC4

Yes it is. There are a lot of online websites that recommend applying for as many passports as you are entitled to. I think it's a good idea, these days.

You've posted a UK website. This is in Sydney. I went to pick up the parcel, complained, the Aus Post fella asked me 'is it an Aus Post guy or a contractor" how the f**k would I know or care. So then precedes to hand me a the page complaint form which I promptly threw back at him. What a joke.

I had the same thing happen at my house last week. I was sitting in my front room and saw the truck pull up, the guy get out and stick the "not in" notice in my letterbox then get back in the truck and drive off. He never came anywhere near my door.

About 6 years back when we lived in a quiet north brisbane suburb, I used to watch the guy in an Aus Post van drive up to our mailbox, stick the card in, then drive off again. After a few times I used to bolt out of the front door as soon as I saw him -when I managed to waylay him and said "ok, I'm here, keep the card and give me the parcel" he actually told me that they often left parcels in the sorting office and just brought out the cards!! i was stunned, couldn't believe it, but he said they found it cut a lot of time off their day as they didn't have to load the parcels into the van and then unload them again! The fact that I then had a 30 minute walk to the post office to pick up the package was lost on him......

Everyone in a white van is a contractor, Aus post employees only deliver parcels now on a motorbike, pushbike or by foot. (Unless it's express then it comes in a nice bright red van with a Post office driver)

The reason I posted the UK site is to illustrate how things are going to go privately. A lot like the backwards service that happened once the utilities got privatised.

I feel sorry for the blokes in the white vans in once respect, they are definitely on well below the minimum wage and working 12-14 hour days. Sometimes when they get 12 big consignment parcels for one address that fill up their van they may only earn 12 bucks, less petrol and wear and tear, for the 1 hour plus delivery. Then drive back to the depot to fill up again... Thats fair dinkum as well. Ripped off all the way round. They at least have jobs though and with their English skills probably unemployable in most other situations. Exploited by Aus Post... poor buggers. They are delivering a minimum of 270 parcels a day on average, Work it out... Then add two hours set up time...which is why they aren't knocking. (They'll knock where they absolutely know people are home). As far as Aus post is concerned it's their contracts and wash their hands of responsibilty. Aus post are pocketing at least 95 pct of the profit.

We don't even have the contractors in our building anymore... They've moved 20 minutes further away from Preston, which means another minimum of 40 mins on top of their 12 hour days plus... plus extra petrol. When it's a light parcel day post takes even more work off them and gives it to the posties. Taking yet more money out of the contractors pockets.

Thomastown parcel depot to Fitzroy, Collingwood, Preston, Brunswick, Coburg, Heidelberg, Northcote, Thornbury.... instead of Preston delivery center..poor poor buggers. So even Preston parcels get delivered from Thomastown now instead of Preston... how stupid is that... Guess the building rental is a lot lower in Thomastown, making the profit margin even bigger and those oh so important pre Parcels section sale even jucier...Gotta love privitisation. Oh at least it's making Aus Post a huge huge profit. Plus those Small parcels that the posties deliver will suddenly reappear in Aus posts profits instead of star tracks (or whoever buys that portion of Parcels delivery) once the deal is completed thus making Ahmed look like a genius.

I'm getting a little sick of the me me me me attitudes the unions have bred in this country.

The deal is they deliver parcels, not cards so you can go and collect.