Australia Post will invest $16 million each year into its more than 2800-strong licensed Post Office network.
The additional funds are to give a helping hand to Post Offices in communities across Australia and to support the ongoing sustainability of the network.
This investment follows the agreement made with Licensed Post Offices in 2019. This has seen extra payments of $55 million to licensees over the past two financial years.
Paul Graham, Australia Post Group CEO and managing director, said “We are working with our licensee partners to ensure they can keep pace with changing customer needs, serve their community, and grow their business.”
Graham highlighted some of the additional payments that licensees will receive. These include increased Community Service Payments of up to $3,000 per year (based on the average daily customer service volumes). This replacesthe current fixed Representation Allowance.
“Licensees will also be eligible for new incentive payments which reward excellence in operational compliance and the achievement of performance targets,” Graham said.
Annual minimum payment allowances will lift by $2,500 for metro Licensed Post Offices, by $5,000 for rural locations, and $10,000 for remote Post Offices.
“I would like to acknowledge and thank the Licensed Post Office Group for the considerable time it has put into this process and the Post Office Agents Association Limited for its valued input and participation into these discussions,” Graham said.
Both the Licensed Post Office Group executive director Angela Cramp, and Bob Chizzoniti, director, Post Office Agents Association Limited, were pleased with the payments, which came after a long consultative process.
Chizzoniti said “These changes to LPO payments will result in licensees being better off overall, including licensees in rural and remote Australia.”
Licensees will start to see payment increases from 1 March 2022, backdated to 1 January 2022, with other changes taking effect from 1 June 2022.
