2004-05 Annual Report - Australia Post

PARCELS
The parcels market
The parcels market is a highly
competitive, global market.
The market can be divided into
two main segments: low-volume
users (such as consumers and
most small businesses) and
high-volume users (such as
large businesses that send to
consumers and other businesses).
During the year, we retained our
position as the market leader for
the low-volume domestic parcels
segment by offering a truly
national network, high levels of
delivery reliability and competitive
prices. At the same time, we
continued to build our share of
the high-volume domestic parcels
market. In recent years, we have
focussed on developing more
flexible and sophisticated parcels
services that will enable us to
win parcels contracts in specific
industries within the high-volume
segment of the market.
DOMESTIC PARCELS
Parcel Post
We are committed to providing
a reliable, low-cost, nationwide
parcel delivery service for all
Australian consumers and
businesses. During the year,
Parcel Post maintained a strong
market position in its traditional
segments – parcel despatches
from business to consumer and
from consumer to consumer.
Our focus this year was on
developing new management,
reporting and tracking systems
that will add flexibility and
capability to the Parcel Post
network. These new systems
will position Parcel Post to
capture a greater share of
the high-volume segment of
the market by improving our
ability to handle (and track)
multi-parcel consignments.
Due to be implemented during
2005–06, the systems will give
our customers access to timely
and accurate information about
the delivery status of their
parcel consignments.
A program to improve the job
performance, presentation and
national consistency of parcel
delivery contractors continued
during the year. In June 2005,
we released a revised induction
and training manual for parcel
contractors as well as a portable
reference guide, called The
Contractor’s Glovebox Guide.
Parcel volumes
We achieved good growth in
domestic parcel volumes for
the third consecutive year, with
volumes up 3.4 per cent this year
(following a 5.2 per cent increase
last year and 3.2 per cent growth
in 2002–03).
The growth in our parcel volumes
is coming from several different
sources. An increase in on-line
selling by small to mediumsized
businesses was the major
factor contributing to record high
sales of prepaid satchels. In the
business-to-consumer parcels
market, our share of the wine
distribution market continued
to grow strongly.
In the high-volume segment,
we increased the amount of
business-to-business parcels
we handle by 8.7 per cent,
mainly by targeting our sales
endeavours in several industryspecific
segments.
Our parcels network
The final elements of the
$129 million program to
modernise our parcel handling
Total delivery points (millions)
network were completed in
July 2004 with the relocation
of small-parcel sorting machines
to the expanded facility at
Underwood (in Brisbane) and new
facilities at Ardeer (in Melbourne)
and Chullora (in Sydney).
During the previous financial year,
new parcel-processing equipment
was installed at all three facilities
to automate the handling and
sorting of large parcels. The
performance of these machines
improved considerably during
the year, with their throughput
increasing by 20 per cent.
In April 2005, the Mail & Networks
Division launched a program
to optimise the operations
of the restructured parcels
network. The program has
improved workplace efficiency
and productivity by refining
processing steps, benchmarking
performance and improving
transport fleet utilisation.
EXPRESS AND
COURIER SERVICES
Express Post
Express Post volumes increased
by 5.1 per cent during the year.
The growth was fuelled by good
economic conditions; recent
expansions to the product range
and the guaranteed delivery
network; and a successful
advertising campaign that
promoted the potential of
Express Post to consumers
and businesses.
Year
Australia Post Annual Report 2004/05 Report of Operations
Parcels and logistics
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