Mail watchdog plan new voice for customers

The public may soon have a ombudsman to hear complaints about the $8 billion postal industry.

The position is likely to be modelled on that of the successful telecommunications ombudsman.

It would have wide powers to investigate complaints and order compensation for poor service by Australia Post and private delivery companies.

The ombudsman would cover all providers of postal and similar services, including Australia Post, courier companies, direct mail houses, document exchange operators and related businesses, according to a Federal Government discussion paper released yesterday.

The plan is a response to the booming private postal industry, which has grown to include multinationals such as FedEx and UPS as well as traditional courier companies such as TNT.

Industry sources say that revenue in the private sector is more than the $3.75 billion turned over by Australia Post last year.

But private postal companies are largely self-regulated and have none of the customer service obligations that Australia Post faces.

Australia Post already must deliver 94 per cent of letters on time. It achieved a 96 per cent performance rate last year.

In the year to June, complaints to the federal ombudsman about Australia Post fell 15 per cent to 896, making it the fifth most complained about government agency.

It found against Australia Post in 157 cases.

Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union spokesman Jim Claven said a postal ombudsman was needed to regulate the private sector.

“Post has a whole range of community service obligations and targets and we would hope they would apply some of those things to the private sector,” Mr Claven said.

Mr Claven is the co-ordinator of the Hands Off Aussie Post campaign.

Australian Consumers Association spokesman Norm Crothers said ombudsmen had proved strong advocates for consumers wherever they had been set up, including telecommunications, banking and, in some states, electricity, water and gas industries.

“They’ve generally been very successful in trying to solve a lot of consumer problems and providing excellent advice.

“They have gone into bat in a lot of cases where consumers need help to go up against a monopoly,” he said.

The plan for a postal ombudsman picks up on a government commitment before last year’s federal election.

“It is envisaged that an ombudsman might offer an impartial, independent one-stop process for handling complaints that could not be satisfactorily resolved by a postal operator’s internal complaint management system,” the discussion paper says.

The ombudsman decisions would be binding.