Fast facts about Australia Post

Photo of post truck on bridge

Did you know that Australia Post is the oldest continually operating organisation in Australia? And that every day Australia Post delivers 20 million items to 10.7 million addresses across Australia?

There's probably a lot that might surprise you about Australia Post. Click on the headings below for more interesting facts and stats.

  • General facts

    • Australia Post is a Government Business Enterprise, with the Commonwealth of Australia as our sole stakeholder. 
    • We are a progressive, commercially run business dedicated to providing accessible, reliable and affordable postal services to all Australians.
    • We are a fully self funding business which earns a profit year on year and returns a large share of this profit to the Commonwealth Government.  We receive no taxpayer funding.
    • Australia Post works closely with other international postal administrations through the Universal Postal Union and the Kahala Posts Group to ensure reliable and efficient delivery of international mail.

  • Our business structure

    As of 1 July 2010, Australia Post commenced a transformation of our business structure to align it better with the needs of our customers. The business is now made up of three key strategic business units, under the Future Ready business renewal program:

    • Postal Services:  Executive General Manager - Jim Marshall
    • Retail Services:  Executive General Manager - Christine Corbett 
    • eServices:  Executive General Manager - Richard Umbers

    These units are supported by the following corporate functional areas:

    • Corporate Affairs:  Executive General Manager - Chris Blake 
    • Human Resources:  General Manager - Catherine Walsh
    • Strategy & Marketing:  Executive General Manager - Richard Umbers
    • Finance & Business Services:  Executive General Manager - Ewen Stafford
    • Risk Assurance:  General Manager - Judith Welsh 
    • Office of the MD: Chief of Staff - Stephen Walter 

  • Our financial results for 2009/10

    • Total revenue - $4.87 billion
    • Profit before tax - $103.0 million
    • Profit after income tax - $89.5 million
    • Contribution to the national economy through labour and operating costs - $4.3 billion
    • Costs of Community Service Obligations - $122.3 million

  • Our people

    • More than 24,000 full time employees/ More than 10,000 part time employees
    • 135 different nationalities
    • 70 languages
    • 593 Indigenous Australians (1.7% of workforce)
    • 2,839 people with a disability (8.2% of workforce)
    • 39.8% of our employees are women
    • One third of our employees are over the age of 50

  • Letters and associated services

    • We delivered 5.1 billion items of mail.
    • We deliver to 10.7 million Australian addresses.
    • We deliver mail five days a week to 98.8% of delivery points.
    • We deliver mail two days a week to 99.9% of delivery points.
    • We maintain approximately 16,039 street posting boxes.
    • 96.1% of domestic letters were delivered on time or early.
    • 97.9% of bulk mail was delivered on time or early.
    • The basic postage rate is 60 cents.

  • Agency services and retail merchandise

    • We have Australia's largest retail network with more than 4,400 postal outlets (including 2,531 in rural and remote areas). We have 2,934 Licensed Post Offices (LPOs), which comprise two thirds of our retail network, as well as 29 Franchised Post Offices .
    • We performed 2.4 million identification checks in our retail outlets.
    • 1.2 million identification photos were taken in our retail outlets.
    • More than 23 million banking transactions were processed in our retail outlets.
    • There have been 2 million gift cards sold in our retail outlets since their introduction in 2007.

  • Parcels and logistics

    • 96.5% of parcels were delivered on time or early.
    • 99.3% of Express Post items were delivered on time or early.
    • eParcel volumes increased by 16.8% compared to the 2008/09 period.

  • Corporate responsibility

    • We raised $387,777 for the Workplace Giving program through staff donations and the organisation's dollar for dollar matching program.
    • Our aim is to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent by 2020 (this target is based on year 2000 emission levels).  We will achieve this through our plan to reduce emissions from our facilities and our fleet as well as giving our people a helping hand in their sustainable practices.
    • We invested $4.37 million (4.9% of our net profit) through our support of programs that promote the arts, the environment, education, rural and regional Australia and health and sport during 2009/10.
    • Australia Post supports community programs such as:
      • Kids Teaching Kids - a national schools-based education program designed to foster greater awareness of local environmental issues while increasing the effectiveness of learning through peer education. Australia Post is now the principal partner in the program for 2010 and 2011.
      • Oz Opera Schools Program - an opera tour visiting 290 schools across metropolitan and regional Victoria and New South Wales.
      • National Literacy and Numeracy Week - sponsored by Australia Post and aims to highlight the importance of effective literacy and numeracy skills for all children and young people.
      • Cartridges 4 Planet Ark - a print cartridge recycling program, which we have collected more than 2 million cartridges for since we joined in 2003.
      • Moblie Muster - a mobile phone and accessories recycling program where we collected more than 8,400 kilograms of phones and accessories in 2009/10.
      • The Banksia Awards - an award that gives Australians the opportunity to vote for the most inspirational individual or initiative contributing towards a better environment.
      • Green PC - a PC recycling program where we collected 260 computers during 2009/10.
    • 70% of our external suppliers are now covered by our code of conduct.
    • As part of our community service obligations we ensure that a postal outlet is within 2.5km of 93.7% of metropolitan residences, and 7.5km of 87.7% of non-metropolitan residences.

  • Our joint-venture partners

    • Australian air Express - a joint venture with Qantas to provide time-critical air and linehaul delivery.
    • Star Track Express - a joint venture with Qantas to provide time-critical business-to-business transport.
    • Sai Cheng Logistics International - a joint venture with China Post to provide supply chain management and logistics services between China, Australia and the rest of the world.

  • Our subsidiary companies

    • Post Logistics Australasia - a third-party logistics provider specialising in the appliance, household and home entertainment sectors.
    • Post Logistics Hong Kong - a freight forwarding service.
    • Decipha - mailroom and document workflow services.
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