Will the postman call no more?

Melbourne Herald Sun, Thursday June 19, 2014

These days it seems as if the only mail I receive is the regular flow from Telstra and Optus, or gas and electric - all wanting money from me. Ironically I have to pay them to bill me. An extra $2 or so for receiving the accounts in print.

I choose to pay because it gives a certain solidity to the monthly cycle. If I received them by email they would get muddled amongst the hundred-odd mails I receive most days, they'd be easily forgotten so I'd print them out - which by the time you've accounted for the paper, ink and bother, would cost around $2.

Precious few non-accounting letters enter my mailbox, all the other matters are dealt with by email and text. So no wonder Australia Post is caught in a sharp descent. Between 2009 and 2013 the number of letters posted has fallen from 5.3 billion to 4.5 billion. And the rate is speeding up.

You can't accuse us of writing less. If you added up the typing of Twitter and Facebook, emails and texts, you would see that today you write much more than you did. But very little of it is posted.

On the physical side, less letters mean less stamps and less work - so Ahmed Fahour, CEO of Australia Post, indicated the loss of 900 jobs. He claims they will go from the administrative side of the business rather than the posties and retail staff. The Communication Workers Union makes a harder summary of the figures, adding a hiring freeze which lost 500 in 2013, a flow of 1000 jobs from permanent to temp, and ongoing tightening of hiring policies. Secretary Joan Doyle predicts a figure of 2500 in four years, from 32,700 employees.

But even as this happens, many of the operations will be strengthened, with post offices extending their opening hours and commercial and financial activities.

The push is on to allow them to grow their services. They already handle your phone and utility bills, so why not Centrelink pensions or driving licences? In Britain the Post Office savings book has been an institution since 1861. Now there are no more Australian state banks, why should they not take that role too?

In fact the internet has not been an ill wind. Through it they have received an enormous boost to their parcel delivery services as Australians turn to mail-order buying like never before. So while they may cry poor at the loss of $218 million in letter business, they recouped three times as much profit from parcels: $648 million.

Because of their legal obligations, most country towns still have a post office. It's a hub for the community and with the increased trading of recent years its value has grown. As the NBN reaches deeper into the country, the post offices will give it natural focus points, allowing country businesses to trade as easily as those in the towns.

No business person looking at the potential could help thinking: what a ripe, juicy plum for privatisation one day - when the government's feeling a bit skint.

Finally I predict a return of the letter. Christmas cards printed by your computer do not sit happily on the mantlepiece, and I notice no fall in activity around the city's greeting card shops. And certainly there is something very un-romantic about a purple ribbon binding a collection of treasured love emails.