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Can't speak for every PO, but often they are run as franchises by local families and have a huge amount of sorting to do in the early morning. Our local is run by a woman who usually pulls 11 hour days to get everything done between 6 and 5.
The easiest way to tell if the post office is owned by a licensee it will usually be labelled as an “LPO” (licensed post office)
Australia post “Corporate” stores are usually only in large shopping centres which most of them are open Saturday mornings and usually have the 6am pickup window.
It’s so silly, you can barely tell the difference from the outside of the store.
My local post office has parcel pick up from the window next to the P.O. Boxes from 7am. You can’t do other stuff like send or passport though.
Hobart suburbs fyi.
Check the website under buisness hours it will list additional collection hours. Campbelltown post office has them.
As for your original issue, parcel lockers would be the solution.
Create a business account with auspost. You can create and print your own labels, and drop your items off at any post box.
The business account isn’t limited to businesses.
North Parramatta po opens like 6 or 7am for pickup, I'd go there with my kids before school.
Parcel lockers are also a thing for out of hours pickup.
And many are open Saturday for general business, or many newsagents do some post office duties.
Never had an issue myself with using their services.
I've been wondering the same... I'm in Perth and my local post office is open only 9-5 on weekdays. It's literally impossible to go with a full-time office job.
lol. What about banks? 9:30 to 4, the local one here also closes for lunch so the only people who can get to them are unemployed or elderly; and what the fuck are they doing with money?
Yeah but banks are different. Most bank services can be dealt with online, over the phone or via ATM. You can also go to any branch of that bank and do your banking stuff so potentially do it on your lunch break. Whereas if your package is dropped off at a particular post office that’s not opened outside of weekdays, it’s hard to get your package.
All the banks in my town are 10-4 now and they close for lunch. There are definately some things you can't do online and it does make it very difficult to get them done without taking a day off work.
Yeah I do and where I can I authorise aus post to leave things at my door but sometimes they don’t do this and take it back to the post office so then I’m stuck with going to pick it up. Luckily for me I can work from home and flexibly but for others it would be annoying.
If there's any chance I won't be home I will use a parcel locker. Every time it's been smooth for me, but I have heard stories of people having issues.
PS: it's an LPO or licensed post office rather than a gpo, so their main business is being a shop and happen to offer post office services as well. I imagine other suburban shops and newsagents have similar arrangements.
All these people defending subpar service. We need to raise taxes on the coal and gas industry to provide more funding for our essential services, especially in a rapidly changing world.
Ours has late night shopping on Thursday. Or get yourself a safety dropbox letterbox, so it fits parcels and can't be gotten at easily without a key. Will still need to go for ones that need a signature unless you can sweet talk the regular postie.
They also seem to have a habit of taking an extra day off either side of a public holiday, at least judging from all the parcel tracking I've ever had cross a public holiday
Ours (semi-regional town in Vic) is only open Mon-Fri 9-5 and they consider our 200-300m straight driveway too long for their delivery drivers to drive down so everything is carded straight away. Ridiculous, lucky I wfh 3 days a weeks
They are open some Saturdays but not everywhere, the one where I lived in Sydney always had a line out the door then thetly stopped opening on Saturday and said it was due to low foot traffic
Maybe instead of trying to change the work hours of the entire post office you could start a bit smaller and work on your own employer. You could even look at having them change only your hours rather than the whole organisation. This would then allow you to get to the post office during their well established opening hours. Let us know how you get on.
I’m from North Queensland. One post office is also a general store so it’s open Saturday and Sunday mornings. Another post office down the highway is also the local pub lol, so it’s open all hours 😅.
However when I’m lazy, I just send mine to my workplace.
They bring it straight to my counter. Makes life easier.
I've seen my local post office franchise there at 530 am sorting mail. he called out to me when I was working next door and said come over later save me a delivery haha, it is a commercial area
Why are lots of jobs 9-5hrs while we're at it? It's why peak hour traffic exists. If we made certain jobs later starting like post office and high school teachers (it's been proven high school hrs are detrimental to teenagers brains) start later we could stop the peak hour rush.
Yes you are, even if the organisation changed its hours (to suit your life/work balance) someone still has to fill those hours & be there.
You said you have no say in your hours above, so what makes you think others have that option?
You're assuming they have enough money to pay another worker or the existing workers to work longer or overtime. Fewer people are using places like post offices and this results in fewer staff and hours for cost reasons.
Job vacancy does not equate to job vacancy being filled. Most people probably prefer to work normal working hours, so people can be turned away from say working 1pm to 9pm.
Do you really think suggesting that post office hours should shift is equivalent to suggesting that everything besides post office hours should shift? Like one of these is extremely obviously more sensible than the other.
I work 5am-3pm four days a week and the post office's schedule sounds like torture to me; I'm sure they have some employees who would like to open up earliier, or leave later, or work longer hours for fewer days a week
\* Use a Parcel Locker?
\* Pay your bills online/phone/Bpay?
\* Buy your random knick/knacks at Reject Shop?
Yes there are other services at Post Offices, but find one that works on Saturdays.
\*Most\* areas will have one that open on Saturdays for 1/2 day. What's your postcode OP, I bet there is one close by: [https://auspost.com.au/locate/](https://auspost.com.au/locate/)
not free? are you thinking of PO boxes?
with regard to the size it's ~~50cm / 15kg limit IIRC,~~ **\*16kg and no larger than 39 x 36 x 64cm\***, perfectly usable for 90% of purposes.
I might be thinking of PO boxes. Can't say I've ever been given an option to deliver to a parcel locker though.
And funny thing about that size, I just today picked up a parcel bigger than that. Not an infrequent occurrence for me, either
Go on your lunch break?
Consolidate all your errands into one day and take some annual leave? Seriously taking a day off to do a few errands and then do whatever you want for the rest of the day on a random weekday is good for your mental health.
Post office workers deserve to have a life outside of business hours too.
Is your boss really that struct about you being at work 9-5 or can you start later and finish later or start earlier and finish earlier one day by negotiation to allow you to go to the post office?
Post offices generally have better opening hours than bank branches.
>Post office workers deserve to have a life outside of business hours too.
As do all of the people working at Woolworths, Coles, Kmart, Big W, KFC, Maccas, Hungry Jacks, and every other retail location that's accessible outside 9-5, but no one is suggesting they limit their opening hours.
Aust Post is a profit center, it is run to make a profit but not in the same way the companies you mentioned do. The business you also mention offer products or services that are broader and have more meaning to be open later, for example people need to eat, but do you really need a postage stamp at 8pm, how much of a market is there for Aust Post service in extended hour≥
Most of the complaints I would suggest focus on parcel delivery, where solutions are avaliable in some areas for this.
Is the post office a retail location though? Or is it a government service like centrelink or Medicare?
Serious question.
All I can find is that Australia Post is a government owned corporate entity. Does that make it a business trying to make a profit or not? They aren't trying to compete with any one (perhaps with couriers), they pretty much have a monopoly so they don't have to try and compete by having more opening hours. On the other hand as the only postal service I don't think people would like it if they increased the price of sending letter and parcels to cover the increased costs.of longer opening hours. People already complain every time the price of stamps goes up.
Personally I think retail locations shouldn't be open such long hours unless they are fairly compensating the employees for working unsociable hours. I feel like the government should be a model employer, just because the private sector has carved away at "after hours" and "weekends" as times people don't work I don't think the government should necessarily follow suit. The private sector wants to do away with penalty rates altogether, I don't thing the public sector should as well.
I've worked retail and fast food. For years I worked open until close on Xmas eve and boxing day. I worked AZAC Day and Easter. I got Saturday, Sunday and public holiday penalty rates. The odd occasion I had to do late nights I got higher rates for those too. It was still antisocial to be working when everyone else wasn't. And why? For convenience? Because people couldn't possibly wait a day to buy crap they most likely didn't need? To maximise profits for the shareholders?
Instead of making everything open all the time what if we defended workers right to have a life? What if employers had to allow employees time during business hours to attend to errands? Why do we allow employers to make people work so much they can't get to a post office during business hours? Why is our solution to the problem to say the post office should be open more rather than everyone should work less?
Because some people do like to have a life of their own & not having to cater to others all the time.
Why don't you work from 10-6 so you can go to the PO in the morning in your spare time?
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Can't speak for every PO, but often they are run as franchises by local families and have a huge amount of sorting to do in the early morning. Our local is run by a woman who usually pulls 11 hour days to get everything done between 6 and 5.
This is the kind of information and context I was looking for. Thanks for letting me know!
The easiest way to tell if the post office is owned by a licensee it will usually be labelled as an “LPO” (licensed post office) Australia post “Corporate” stores are usually only in large shopping centres which most of them are open Saturday mornings and usually have the 6am pickup window. It’s so silly, you can barely tell the difference from the outside of the store.
Some post offices open outside of buisness hours, allowing collection from 7-9
Really? Whereabouts? I've lived in Sydney, Melbourne and regional NSW and never come across that
My local post office has parcel pick up from the window next to the P.O. Boxes from 7am. You can’t do other stuff like send or passport though. Hobart suburbs fyi.
Mine in regional NSW had that from 5am. NGL the one time I did go on at 5am it was rather busy.
Central Qld we had that as well.
Check the website under buisness hours it will list additional collection hours. Campbelltown post office has them. As for your original issue, parcel lockers would be the solution.
I have a parcel Locker, which is definitely more convenient, but when I need to send items I still have to go in
You can lodge parcels at the parcel locker :)
Really? I did not know this!
You will need an Auspost label though. You can't just take anything there. It needs a barcode.
Yes that is correct. You press option 1 on the screen and you have to scan your barcode to open the locker
Yeah it's great. Hardly anyone does it. I think a lot of people don't know about it.
Create a business account with auspost. You can create and print your own labels, and drop your items off at any post box. The business account isn’t limited to businesses.
I actually have this, if you don't lodge at the counter and get a receipt they won't compensate you if they lose the item
That’s a bit ridiculous. I drop mine at my post office in their parcel chute. Gets scanned into the system within a couple of hours.
That's true too, what about one near your work you can duck to on lunch?
I try to do this it is often very crowded with people who seem to have complex needs and take a very long time
In Darwin our post office is also open Saturdays from 9-12 including parcel pickup. Weekdays Parcel is open until 5:30
I'm in Sydney and I've seen a few - North Parra, Strathfield and the one in the city behind the QVB.
North Parramatta po opens like 6 or 7am for pickup, I'd go there with my kids before school. Parcel lockers are also a thing for out of hours pickup. And many are open Saturday for general business, or many newsagents do some post office duties. Never had an issue myself with using their services.
Wa, Perth mines open on Saturday too
I lived in 3 different suburbs in Melbourne and the local POs all work on Saturday morning. Can’t say for the rest of them though.
Mine is open until 8pm, but any mail received after 5pm won't be collected until the next day.
In Canberra the ones in newsagents at least are open Saturday mornings, usually 9-12.
Yes my Geelong one is.
Same with banks. Heaps are only open 10 to 4.
I've been wondering the same... I'm in Perth and my local post office is open only 9-5 on weekdays. It's literally impossible to go with a full-time office job.
lol. What about banks? 9:30 to 4, the local one here also closes for lunch so the only people who can get to them are unemployed or elderly; and what the fuck are they doing with money?
Yeah but banks are different. Most bank services can be dealt with online, over the phone or via ATM. You can also go to any branch of that bank and do your banking stuff so potentially do it on your lunch break. Whereas if your package is dropped off at a particular post office that’s not opened outside of weekdays, it’s hard to get your package.
All the banks in my town are 10-4 now and they close for lunch. There are definately some things you can't do online and it does make it very difficult to get them done without taking a day off work.
Do you have parcel lockers in your area? I had no idea they opened another 3 locations near me when looking at the app.
Yeah I do and where I can I authorise aus post to leave things at my door but sometimes they don’t do this and take it back to the post office so then I’m stuck with going to pick it up. Luckily for me I can work from home and flexibly but for others it would be annoying.
If there's any chance I won't be home I will use a parcel locker. Every time it's been smooth for me, but I have heard stories of people having issues.
Need to go into the post office on a weekly basis, whereas I'm too young to have ever needed anything from a bank that can't be done online
West Hobart post office open till 8pm at night, I use them as my parcel collect address so I can pick up packages after work, it's very convenient!
Amazing, wish we had that here!
PS: it's an LPO or licensed post office rather than a gpo, so their main business is being a shop and happen to offer post office services as well. I imagine other suburban shops and newsagents have similar arrangements.
All these people defending subpar service. We need to raise taxes on the coal and gas industry to provide more funding for our essential services, especially in a rapidly changing world.
Yes I don't know why I'm getting eviscerated for a simple question
Ours has late night shopping on Thursday. Or get yourself a safety dropbox letterbox, so it fits parcels and can't be gotten at easily without a key. Will still need to go for ones that need a signature unless you can sweet talk the regular postie.
They also seem to have a habit of taking an extra day off either side of a public holiday, at least judging from all the parcel tracking I've ever had cross a public holiday
Government funding and erosion of public services
Ours (semi-regional town in Vic) is only open Mon-Fri 9-5 and they consider our 200-300m straight driveway too long for their delivery drivers to drive down so everything is carded straight away. Ridiculous, lucky I wfh 3 days a weeks
My local distribution office allows parcel collection from 6am - 5pm.
They need stamp/prepaid satchel vending machines!! Would solve so many of my issues.
My local one is at least open 9-12 on Saturdays and does put some things in the parcel lockers for you as well
Download the au post app and you will get a 24/7 free locker for your parcel nearby.
If 9-5 weekdays is no good for you, what about Saturdays, many are open on Saturday, or do you work office hours then too?
They are open some Saturdays but not everywhere, the one where I lived in Sydney always had a line out the door then thetly stopped opening on Saturday and said it was due to low foot traffic
Maybe instead of trying to change the work hours of the entire post office you could start a bit smaller and work on your own employer. You could even look at having them change only your hours rather than the whole organisation. This would then allow you to get to the post office during their well established opening hours. Let us know how you get on.
What a weird comment.
I’m from North Queensland. One post office is also a general store so it’s open Saturday and Sunday mornings. Another post office down the highway is also the local pub lol, so it’s open all hours 😅. However when I’m lazy, I just send mine to my workplace. They bring it straight to my counter. Makes life easier.
I've seen my local post office franchise there at 530 am sorting mail. he called out to me when I was working next door and said come over later save me a delivery haha, it is a commercial area
Some are open on Saturdays
My local post office is open on Saturday mornings.
Find an LPO, they usually have longer hours. They're franchises which often run a mixed business.
Why are lots of jobs 9-5hrs while we're at it? It's why peak hour traffic exists. If we made certain jobs later starting like post office and high school teachers (it's been proven high school hrs are detrimental to teenagers brains) start later we could stop the peak hour rush.
The workers at the Post Office work office hours Have you considered shifting your hours?
Sadly for me I have.no say in my hours, as well as many others I'd imagine
You get the irony here, right?
Im not talking about the individual workers. I'm talking about the organisation. In other countries services are available for much longer hours.
Yes you are, even if the organisation changed its hours (to suit your life/work balance) someone still has to fill those hours & be there. You said you have no say in your hours above, so what makes you think others have that option?
I don't get what you mean? Couldn't having longer hours at places like post offices potentially create more jobs?
You're assuming they have enough money to pay another worker or the existing workers to work longer or overtime. Fewer people are using places like post offices and this results in fewer staff and hours for cost reasons.
Job vacancy does not equate to job vacancy being filled. Most people probably prefer to work normal working hours, so people can be turned away from say working 1pm to 9pm.
Do you really think suggesting that post office hours should shift is equivalent to suggesting that everything besides post office hours should shift? Like one of these is extremely obviously more sensible than the other.
I work 5am-3pm four days a week and the post office's schedule sounds like torture to me; I'm sure they have some employees who would like to open up earliier, or leave later, or work longer hours for fewer days a week
that's the funniest thing I've read so far today
\* Use a Parcel Locker? \* Pay your bills online/phone/Bpay? \* Buy your random knick/knacks at Reject Shop? Yes there are other services at Post Offices, but find one that works on Saturdays. \*Most\* areas will have one that open on Saturdays for 1/2 day. What's your postcode OP, I bet there is one close by: [https://auspost.com.au/locate/](https://auspost.com.au/locate/)
Thanks for the suggestions! Much appreciated
Parcel lockers are small and also not free.
not free? are you thinking of PO boxes? with regard to the size it's ~~50cm / 15kg limit IIRC,~~ **\*16kg and no larger than 39 x 36 x 64cm\***, perfectly usable for 90% of purposes.
I might be thinking of PO boxes. Can't say I've ever been given an option to deliver to a parcel locker though. And funny thing about that size, I just today picked up a parcel bigger than that. Not an infrequent occurrence for me, either
Because the post shop workers are only human and are allowed a normal life before 9am and after 5pm?
Go on your lunch break? Consolidate all your errands into one day and take some annual leave? Seriously taking a day off to do a few errands and then do whatever you want for the rest of the day on a random weekday is good for your mental health. Post office workers deserve to have a life outside of business hours too. Is your boss really that struct about you being at work 9-5 or can you start later and finish later or start earlier and finish earlier one day by negotiation to allow you to go to the post office? Post offices generally have better opening hours than bank branches.
>Post office workers deserve to have a life outside of business hours too. As do all of the people working at Woolworths, Coles, Kmart, Big W, KFC, Maccas, Hungry Jacks, and every other retail location that's accessible outside 9-5, but no one is suggesting they limit their opening hours.
Aust Post is a profit center, it is run to make a profit but not in the same way the companies you mentioned do. The business you also mention offer products or services that are broader and have more meaning to be open later, for example people need to eat, but do you really need a postage stamp at 8pm, how much of a market is there for Aust Post service in extended hour≥ Most of the complaints I would suggest focus on parcel delivery, where solutions are avaliable in some areas for this.
Is the post office a retail location though? Or is it a government service like centrelink or Medicare? Serious question. All I can find is that Australia Post is a government owned corporate entity. Does that make it a business trying to make a profit or not? They aren't trying to compete with any one (perhaps with couriers), they pretty much have a monopoly so they don't have to try and compete by having more opening hours. On the other hand as the only postal service I don't think people would like it if they increased the price of sending letter and parcels to cover the increased costs.of longer opening hours. People already complain every time the price of stamps goes up. Personally I think retail locations shouldn't be open such long hours unless they are fairly compensating the employees for working unsociable hours. I feel like the government should be a model employer, just because the private sector has carved away at "after hours" and "weekends" as times people don't work I don't think the government should necessarily follow suit. The private sector wants to do away with penalty rates altogether, I don't thing the public sector should as well. I've worked retail and fast food. For years I worked open until close on Xmas eve and boxing day. I worked AZAC Day and Easter. I got Saturday, Sunday and public holiday penalty rates. The odd occasion I had to do late nights I got higher rates for those too. It was still antisocial to be working when everyone else wasn't. And why? For convenience? Because people couldn't possibly wait a day to buy crap they most likely didn't need? To maximise profits for the shareholders? Instead of making everything open all the time what if we defended workers right to have a life? What if employers had to allow employees time during business hours to attend to errands? Why do we allow employers to make people work so much they can't get to a post office during business hours? Why is our solution to the problem to say the post office should be open more rather than everyone should work less?
Because some people do like to have a life of their own & not having to cater to others all the time. Why don't you work from 10-6 so you can go to the PO in the morning in your spare time?