The Postal Industry Ombudsman, Professor John McMillan, has identified a heavy reliance on manual systems as the root cause of many errors and the likely reason for 65,000 complaints in 2007 to Australia Post about its mail redirection service.

‘The non-delivery of mail can have serious consequences for those affected, including financial loss owing to late or non-payment of bills or mail falling into the wrong hands,’ according to Professor McMillan.

‘People rely on the redirection service for many reasons—to ensure that mail is not missed when they move house, go on holiday, temporarily relocate for work, or renovate a property.’

Releasing the results of his investigation into Australia Post’s administration of its mail redirection service, the Ombudsman today said that the most common complaint related to the failure of redirections that had, at some stage, worked effectively.

‘The problem is that because the service relies on manual systems, the potential for human error is high.’

Professor McMillan explained that Australia Post’s mail redirection application forms are paper-based only and must be sent to a central location for processing, where redirection stickers are produced and sent to the relevant postal outlet. Delivery people are then required to recognise—by reference to a folder in which the stickers are held—that mail to a certain address is subject to redirection and to manually apply the stickers to the mail.

‘A further problem is that complaints to my office reveal repeated unsuccessful attempts by customers to resolve the underlying causes of mail redirection errors,’ he said.

The Ombudsman made several suggestions for improving the service, including:

• introducing an online application system (used in the US, Canada and the UK)
• transferring data input to the point-of-sale to enable customers to verify their information before it is saved to the computer system
• reconsidering the manual redirection sticker process
• providing specific training to staff on effectively resolving mail redirection complaints.

Professor McMillan welcomed Australia Post’s response to the report that it would seek to improve the accuracy of its mail redirection service and to deal with complaints more effectively.

Download the report: Australia Post: Administration of the Mail Redirection Service.

Media contact: Media 02 6276 3759

Date of release: 28 June 2009