Australia Post service improvements

[Stefan Buda]

Almost every time I visit the PO, I discover some new service improvement that makes me laugh. Today I bought a pack of Express Post satchels and found out that the small variety that used to be limited to 500g, now can be used for up to 5000g and it only costs about 12% more. But the funny thing is that they made the new satchel so small that the only object weighing 5000g, that would fit, would have to be a solid block of steel, copper or lead. I don't think a 5kg aluminium brick would fit.

[glend (Glen)]

They cut back my mail delivery to every second day, claiming they were redeploying the scooter delivery people to something more important - I wonder how the staff felt about that and where they are all standing around now? It seems that delivery every second day means I only see the postie ride by two days a week, Tuesday and Thursday, as they seem to start counting again each Monday..they think were idiots.

[Stefan Buda]

Yep, the same attitude as with the satchels.
Pretend that the week consists of 4 days. If they did not take us for idiots, at least they would have made mail deliveries on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

[sunslayr (David)]

So thats the kind of thinking that earns you 2.5 million a year plus 5 million in bonuses as an Aus post exec.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Having written numerous freight softwares shipping is always a grey area. You're wrestling with contractors rates, physical delivery areas and finally volume vs. weight. So I agree it's funny when you have a weight increase and the volume doesn't fit the bag but in the end it might end up on a palette, then in a container and you have to work out if the "voluminous" stuff has to go on top of the "small" heavier stuff. It's like a tetris headache only you have weight to contend with as well.

[gary]

Originally Posted by multiweb

Having written numerous freight softwares shipping is always a grey area. You're wrestling with contractors rates, physical delivery areas and finally volume vs. weight. So I agree it's funny when you have a weight increase and the volume doesn't fit the bag but in the end it might end up on a palette, then in a container and you have to work out if the "voluminous" stuff has to go on top of the "small" heavier stuff. It's like a tetris headache only you have weight to contend with as well.

Ye Olde strongly NP-complete Bin Packing Problem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bin_packing_problem

Originally Posted by multiweb

It's like a tetris headache only you have weight to contend with as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packing_problems

It's a pity about volumetric weight. Otherwise I would have loved to have
gone to the Post Office with helium-filled balloons, tied them to the scales
and argued they would have to pay me to send them.

Australia Post volumetric weights are based on you having to ship
depleted uranium to get your money's-worth.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by gary

Ye Olde strongly NP-complete Bin Packing Problem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bin_packing_problem


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packing_problems

It's a pity about volumetric weight. Otherwise I would have loved to have
gone to the Post Office with helium-filled balloons, tied them to the scales
and argued they would have to pay me to send them.

Australia Post volumetric weights are based on you having to ship
depleted uranium to get your money's-worth.

I reckon auspost should slowly introduce rates based on density but that would be a nightmare for the marketing team to sell. Back to school.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by gary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packing_problems

I remember a piece of software circa 99 that would position pieces to be cut in large piles of leather layers so they would minimize offcuts. It was quite amazing the way it would iterate through the shapes until it zeroed in on the ideal position for the patterns like a Tangram game.