Calls for a greener and more efficient parcel delivery network are ramping up as postal services set record-high fuel surcharges, passing more costs on to retailers and consumers already grappling with soaring inflation.
Australia Post, the country’s largest courier network, has set a surcharge of 7.9 per cent for July.
It was 0 per cent in March 2021.
TNT is applying a 28.6 per cent surcharge, while Toll has set a figure of 33.19 per cent for priority shipments with fuel costs soaring.
The Morrison government’s excise cut benefited consumers but it was partially funded by removing the fuel tax credit for transport companies, forcing record surcharge increases.
Those costs are passed on to retailers and then passed on to consumers, adding to wider inflationary pressure.
Delivery management expert Lynne Thornton says more efficient dispatch systems, with government backing, could be key to reducing the mounting fuel-cost impact.
“What ends up happening, particularly in apartment complexes, is more than 20 per cent of parcels are not successfully delivered the first time – there was nowhere to leave it, there was no one home, they rang the doorbell, they put the parcel back in the delivery van … and they try again the next day,” explained Ms Thornton, co-founder of Groundfloor, a business implementing centralised “smart delivery” lockers in apartment and office buildings.
“What’s really important is to get that first-time delivery every time when fuel prices are so expensive.
“With fuel surcharge costs rising, there are calls for the government to implement new systems that lower prices and reduce the carbon footprint of parcels.”
The environmental impact of parcels becomes a factor when a package is not successfully delivered on the first try because courier vehicles clock up more kilometres in subsequent attempts, emitting more carbon.
“If you have things getting re-delivered, or couriers circling the block waiting for loading bays or you have an inefficient delivery network in that last mile it’s creating carbon emissions,” Ms Thornton explained.
“So every time you can get a first delivery successful, you’ve lowered the carbon footprint of that delivery, but you’ve also lowered the fuel consumption of that delivery.
“For buildings that can’t afford to put in the infrastructure, I think the government should think about, ‘How are we going to offer these points of delivery?’”
Centralised delivery points in apartment buildings, offices and retail settings allow couriers to drop parcels off in a specific location rather than having to search for the recipient, increasing efficiency and reducing the chance of a failed run, Ms Thornton says.
The Groundfloor chief is calling on the government to subsidise greener networks for postal operators.
“The government ran huge support for solar energy a few years ago. There were all sorts of subsidies to get solar energy going to get everything greener,” she said.
“The reality is that improving the last-mile delivery is making everything greener as well.”
Similar systems, dubbed pick-up, drop off (PUDO) networks, have been adopted widely in Europe.
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