TRANSCRIPT:
For more than two centuries, Australia Post has delivered letters every day.
But that is coming to an end.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland says there's a need for change.
"We understand that with the rise of competitors, the gig economy, the changing structure of the market, that Australia Post's traditional services are under more and more pressure. The market has fundamentally altered."
With the average household receiving just two letters a week Australia Post will now deliver them every second day.
Resources will be diverted to daily deliveries of express post, priority letters and parcels, as eCommerce continues to fuel demand.
Julie Coyne, a delivery person for Australia Post, says people's needs are changing with the times.
"We used to get seven trays of mail, now we'll get one or two. but the parcels... we used to get five back ten years ago. Now we're getting hundreds."
Australia Post CEO Paul Graham says the number of parcel deliveries grew substantially during retail sale seasons.
"The recent cyber weekend, we had 7.4 million passes large with Australia Post a record for that event and 3.9 per cent over the same period last year. So it shows people are still shopping and clicking with their fingers in great abandon."
While Australia Post's letter delivery mandate may be changing, the government-owned but self-funded service says it will continue to operate a minimum of four-thousand local post offices.
Ms Rowland says they play multiple roles in rural communities.
"In some Rural and Regional areas it serves not only as postal service but also as the General Store, the news agent, and, in some cases, providing the only banking facilities that are available."
Last year Australia Post's letter business ran a 384 million dollar loss, in only the second time in 30 years that the service did not report a profit.
Parcels and services brought in more than $7 billion.
Postal delivery person Chris Russell says people are often made to wait long times for the delivery of their parcels.
"The feedback we're getting from the community is that they're outside waiting for their Parcels. They're not waiting for the water bill, so to speak. That's what the community's wanting and we have to answer that change."
Australia Post will have to compete with other heavy hitters in the global parcel delivery business.
CEO Paul Graham acknowledges it won't be a swift return to posting a profit.
"All the things that we can do, as an organisation, and now with the help and support of the government, combined that will see us on a trajectory that should deliver a profitable outcome for Australia Post in the mid to long term future."
Australia Post has also applied to the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission to increase the price of stamps.
Unions have expressed their confidence that jobs in the postal sector are secure.
Shane Murphy is the Secretary of Communication for the Workers' Union.
"We're very confident. We've been in 12 months of negotiations. This has been the collaborative approach. This is certainly not about Job losses. This is about facing into the future. There is written commitments between the union of Australia Post in relation to the Future service and the delivery being provided by our postings. Not only now but well into the future so we wouldn't be here today if it wasn't about jobs and service for the community."
The changes are currently being trialled by Australia Post delivery personnel at six locations.
Those involved, such as Chris Russell, will be giving the final seal of approval.
"There's always a little bit of apprehension with any sort of change, but we were really fortunate here we has a really good local working group that incorporated the posties and the management team and we're sort of sorted through and come out the other side pretty good."
Choosing the busiest time of year to put this new delivery model to the test.
