Consumer lending industry body National Credit Providers Association’s (NCPA) reliance on traditional post has been upended following Australia Post’s slowed delivery rates.
NCPA says it is now going to encourage its members to move to digital delivery of documents, as it can no longer rely on AusPost to deliver – meaning a swathe of print is under threat.
The mailing giant has been under fire for its sluggish mail delivery, which was introduced after it logged a $222m profit loss – the decelerated post arrivals has affected businesses reliant on mail correspondence.
The NCPA detailed in a report it is set to ‘place less reliance on hardcopy delivery of any document’ and says it will now look to electronic delivery of sensitive documents.
“It is the NCPA’s position that unless it could be shown that delivery of any notice would be more likely to be affected by hardcopy delivery rather than electronic, the move to electronic delivery should be encouraged,” the report states.
In March of 2015 Australia Post’s request for a regulatory reform of its letters service was approved by the Federal Government which resulted in ‘two-speed’ delivery options which slowed down regular mail by two days.
[Related: Aus Post competing with faster services]
Members of the credit association can no longer rely on ordinary post speeds to deliver important documents on time, and have been urged by the NCPA to organise email addresses to receive electronic transactions instead of paper.
The NCPA and its members were caught off guard by Aus Post’s revised post rates, which went into effect early January, particularly due to the laws surrounding prompt correspondence and delivery of financial notices.
NCPA chief executive Phil Johns stated in a letter to members, "Our view is that you should allow a further two days to ensure that the document is delivered compared to the time you would have previously allowed.”
Aus Post’s mail irregularity was pointed out by the NCPA in its report ‘Potential changes to the Electronic Transactions Regulations 2000’, stating ‘it is more likely that a consumer will receive a notice from a lender if that notice was sent electronically than by way of hard copy’.
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