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, largely 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