Australian postal surveys not delivering
Australia Post has been urged to change its method of assessing community attitudes to proposed changes to postal services.
Australia Post has been urged to change its method of assessing community attitudes to proposed changes to postal services.
The postal industry ombudsman, Professor John McMillan, who is also the commonwealth ombudsman, investigated the agency’s method of judging community support for service changes and found it could be improved.
According to the ombudsman, Australia Post often conducted ‘community polls’ to gauge public support for a new mail delivery service or increase in frequency of an existing service.
It contacts the households affected by the proposed change to establish how many of them would support the possible change.
“Each year my Office receives complaints about Australia Post’s community polling,” the ombudsman said. “Many communities, particularly in rural and regional areas, rely heavily on regular postal delivery services for maintaining business and family contacts.”
He said more than 70 communities across Australia had been polled in the last five years and decided, in light of the complaints, that an investigation would be in order.
“Changes to mail delivery services affect communities across Australia,” Professor McMillan said. “There can be an impact on local businesses, including general stores and local Post Offices and agents, where people collect mail. It is important that Australia Post takes community views into account.”
He said he was concerned that the polling method used by Australia Post might not accurately capture community views about plans to change postal delivery services.
“Specifically, Australia Post considers that the non-return of a polling form indicates lack of support for the proposed change. There may in fact be a different explanation.”
The ombudsman said that treating a non-response as a lack of support for change had the potential to misrepresent community views. “For example,” he said, “a person may be ill or away, may not receive the polling form, or may not realise the importance of the form.”
He recommended that Australia Post review the way it carries out its community polls and make other changes that would give them more credence. “Australia Post has responded positively to the report,” the ombudsman said. “It advised that it would review the way in which it gauges community support for changes to local mail delivery arrangements.”
It promised to share the findings of the review with the ombudsman.
The full text of the ombudsman’s report can be found at www.ombudsman.gov.au
