Whereas with the street delivery, those letters are often left on the top of the street mail box to be destroyed by rain or blown away by wind, because not every person has enough time or civic consciousness to take the misdelivered letter to the right address (of it is nearby) or to a post box for a safe return.

It also helps the Post to maintain a reliable service, because any letter placed in a wrong PO box can be returned immediately by simply pushing it to the back of the box so it pokes out a bit and attracts the attention of the sorting person. Nevertheless, Australia Post is blaming the price-hike on the mounting costs related to raw materials, delivery, transport and energy despite the fact that people who rent PO boxes are actually saving Australia Post money by reducing the street mail deliveries the futile transportation of parcels back to post offices for later collection by theĪddressee when street address delivery fails the cost of subcontractors for door-to-door parcel deliveries the fuel costs and by eliminating complaints about misdelivered letters or parcels that were stolen or damaged by rain, insects or sun when left on the premises. All the new services like email alerts or SMS notifications about the presence/absence of new mail in the box are available at a substantial extra cost ($55 and $89 respectively) on top of the box price, and thus cannot be used as an excuse for the price rise. However, Australian PO boxes haven't changed for decades: they are still exactly the same black boxes with small doors and awkwardly large keys - so, besides the inflation, the running cost and maintenance should not be that different to what it was before. Normally, higher prices are justified by higher running costs, implementation of new expensive technologies or increased cost of maintenance.

Which means that Australia Post increased its post office box prices 77% above the inflation rate. Inflation in Australia over the last ten years was around 27%. Over the past 10 years, considering that the cost of a small PO box was $55 in 2004, Australia Post increased PO box prices by nearly 104%. Average yearly inflation rate in Australia during the same 5-year period was about 2.75%, which results in 13.75% inflation for those 5 years. In 2009, the price of the same box was $80, so in five years Australia Post increased the cost by 40%. In 2014, the cost of a small PO box became $112. AusPost year by year: a sad decline of a great service 2004-2014Īustralia Post put the prices of its post office boxes up, again. * From 2016 onward mail delivery will take about 2 days longer than before, unless additional priority label is purchased.

Australia Post: prices, reviews and comments PO Box and Stamp Prices Year

Po box cost