Sending parcels - please beware

mycuppa

Most of you will have heard more than one bad freight handling story, especially when it comes to damaged manifest. Over many years, I've experienced some absolute shockers - replete with the various scars to remind me.

Most of our parcels are sent via AusPost business parcel service as they have proven time and again to have the range and the reach advantage against their competitors when it comes to non-business recipients. They are also very fast in most cases and our local lodgement team give us nothing but superb service.

Recently, we have experienced a very worrying trend - the rate of damaged consignments has risen out of control.

Well, I hear you say.....that's what insurance is for.....well actually, no it's not. At this stage you have a very upset and emotional customer that just wants it replaced immediately. The customer experience is the most important element in any purchase and no insurance is going to resolve the awful feeling - the opportunity has been lost.

Another reason freight insurance is not the answer is because of the overly complicated processes involved in managing claims - what a clever design - make it more expensive to pursue than the proceeds recovered !

As AusPost enjoy a monopoly in the online freight market, it means they are dealing with significant growth factors affecting their business operations. You won't find any official numbers, but the parcel movements of AusPost are growing in excess of 500% pa. At times, you do wish there was an alternative or at least some simple competition.

Behind the scenes, they are using large ULD (cages) to move parcels in bulk around the country. These are mechanically tipped at various stages and yes.......you can imagine......things getting squashed and damaged inside. Generally, the external signs of damage are minor.....slight crumpling of the carton and barely noticeable as the cardboard flexes back to it's origin position, but in reality you can image a clothes dryer and that's is precise what is going on.

Or, it's the super-small sized AusPost shops that have next to zero storage room behind the retail outlet for holding parcels and they are just stacked up to the ceiling regardless of weight.

Today I've just had the 5th parcel this week damaged - these are the ones I know about - there are probably more.

The worst one this week was a customer told me the coffee beans and the remains of coffee bags and carton were in a plastic bag (obviously supplied by AusPost) that had been scooped up. Of course, Auspost had a very useful remedy for this problem - the customer facing AusPost staff in the store told my customer who collected their damaged parcel to reject the parcel and return to sender - it was obviously defectively sent by the supplier.

I wonder how you can have a torn coffee bag, damaged carton and loose bean lodged at our end.......sounds like a very interesting physical challenge to accomplish.

AusPost have also said in writing previously that I just need to expect damaged parcels. Of course, it was sage words coming from a monopolist who can dictate terms without any responsibility. Obviously they have not tried to operate in our industry where it is so tough that you cannot afford to place such high risk margins into your product costings.

So folks, before you send an item to someone, please take a moment to think about what if it was damaged and how can I prepare for the worst.

Brett H

Very worrying!  I have wondered why a parcel from overseas can arrive here faster than one from within australia.  It has seriously happened with items or my wife's jewelry... Stuff?!?  We need a major competitor or three me thinks.

galumay

If you think AP are bad, you should try TNT. They are 10 times worse with smashing freight.

mycuppa

TNT by name and by nature !

lemoo

TNT - You bet we blow shit up PS: I did actually get a grinder in from Italy using TNT with not a hitch (must've hit courier lotto). fair to say grinder was triple boxed with padding. but the box itself didnt even have any dents and everything works perfect!

UNM

here's an acronym you nay not have heard of: UPU, Universal Postal Union. http://www.upu.int/ As I understand it, Australia Post have an obligation to deliver inbound international parcels FOR ZERO COST. This means a significant (and rapidly growing) portion of their workload generates no revenue. It seems likely to me that this is affecting their ability to provide high quality of service. There is definitely a business opportunity out there for someone to carve a new niche, but high risk.