Today’s headline story: Australia Post expects a full-year financial loss
Australia Post, the government-owned enterprise, has declared it is at a “crossroads” and predicts its first full-year loss since 2015 as letter revenue continues to decline.
The postal operator recently released its first half financial results for the 2023 financial year. According to the results, Group revenue was down 2.4% from the previous year, with a total of $4.69bn. This decline was largely due to the ongoing decrease in letter volumes.
Australia Post has been highlighting its structural headwinds for a while now. The group’s profit before tax was $23.6m, significantly lower than the prior corresponding period. This was largely due to a record first-half letters loss of $189.7m, compared to $69.9m the previous year.
Operational costs during the first half of the financial year increased by 1.2% from the same period last year, totaling $4.64bn. This increase was due to several factors, including severe weather events, rail network disruptions, and a 6.1% wage increase for EBA team members.
Despite the increase in operational costs, Australia Post invested $208.2m in new facilities, fleet, and technologies to better serve its customers.
“For more than a decade, Australia Post has been flagging concerns about the long-term viability of the business as it currently operates,” said Paul Graham, Group Chief Executive Managing Director.”
“During the Covid-19 lockdowns we benefited from a considerable boost to our parcels business, which has now abated and revealed the unsustainable nature of the status quo.”
“We are at a crossroads and the headwinds facing our business have never been stronger.”
Element 2 presently operates at 5 hydrogen refuelling locations across the UK today, and is in the process of building two permanent public refuelling stations along the M6 and A1(M) motorways.
Read more at: https://trans.info/en/pineapple-power-acquisition-of-element-2-may-boost-uks-hydrogen-refuelling-infrastructure-338057
Call to action – Out of Home delivery in Europe 2023 report
The Last Mile Experts team, together with partner Analysys Mason, invite you to participate in a project aimed at presenting the latest information on European OOH networks – PUDO points and APMs.
The goal of the third edition of our Out of Home delivery in Europe report is to present data on the development of PUDO and APM networks supporting an environmentally friendly methods of last mile delivery. Since the first edition of our report in 2021, many European (EU & UK) carriers and operators have shared information with us about the number of PUDO and APM points.
However, there is a sizable group that has not provided us with data until now, and those we have presented have come from available press materials, interviews and website information. Every year there are also new networks that are just entering the OOH delivery business. So we invite everyone who has not yet submitted their data to participate (for free) in our project this year.
You can get more information and an simplified application form by writing to info@lmexpert.com. We are collecting data for the report up to and including February 17, 2023.
For those who have not yet had the opportunity to read the previous editions of the reports, you can do so here and become acquainted with its concept and what it strives to achieve. You can also find more information via Linkedin.
Thank you from Last Mile Experts and the Analysys Mason team.
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Photo: Josh Parris at English Wikipedia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons