Australian postal fuel surcharges to rise in June
Sydney (11 May)
Australia Post will increase fuel surcharges for contract customers from June to manage the impact of fuel price rises stemming from US-Israeli war in Iran, the company has announced.
It will lift its domestic parcel and StarTrack Courier fuel surcharges from 12% in May to 19.5% from the start of June, the company said. It will also increase its StarTrack Express and StarTrack Premium fuel surcharges from 22.7% to 30.2% over the same period, the company added.
Australia Post’s fuel surcharge changes will impact around 30,000 of its contract customers – including some large retailers – but will not affect its retail or 250,000 MyPost Business customers, Lithos has learned.
MyPost Business users are primarily small and medium-sized businesses.
Australia Post is not the only company that plans to use surcharges to offset high fuel costs in June. Aramex Australia, a smaller postal company, will increase its domestic fuel surcharge from 12.3% in May to 18.3% in June because of high diesel prices.
Aramex Australia adjusts its domestic fuel surcharge each month based on national diesel prices two months earlier, relative to a A$1.20/litre baseline. The company increases its surcharge by 0.1% each time Australia’s average diesel price rises by 1c/litre.
Australian diesel prices have increased since the Iran war began on 28 February because of maritime disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz.
National diesel prices averaged A$2.47/litre over the week to 10 May, up from A$1.81/litre over the week to 1 March, data from the Australian Institute of Petroleum (AIP) show. Average national diesel prices peaked at A$3.19/litre over the week to 12 April, AIP data show.
By Avinash Govind