OT postage to China

[PhoBot]

Lots of Chinese here.. hope I could get some info.

What's the cheapest way to send a package, about 5kg to China

Cheers

[Max Impact]

I wanna know the cheapest way to send a package about 41 kg from Shanghai to Sydney.

[aussie_jack]

I wanna know the cheapest way to send a package about 41 kg from Shanghai to Sydney.

Brother, according to all the flashy advertisements that pop up as I browse the tubes you just need to join a dating service and they'll fly here in no time.

[CunningLinguist]

Lots of Chinese here.. hope I could get some info.

What's the cheapest way to send a package, about 5kg to China

Cheers

I am not Chinese, but I reckon it is best to get someone in China to send you a prepaid satchel then put your parcel in the satchel.
If you use Australia post or any other australian based company you will pay at least double.

[wilisno]

I am not Chinese, but I reckon it is best to get someone in China to send you a prepaid satchel then put your parcel in the satchel.
If you use Australia post or any other australian based company you will pay at least double.
Look at that ! How powerful is Syd99 for information ! :miao:

[Max Impact]

From those adverts, I see they can walk here from Hurstville!

[B-man]

Cheapest way from Australia is Australia Post.

Cheapest way from China is China Post.




Yes, I am serious.

[ampletwo]

I don't get how postage from China/HK is so much cheaper than Australia Post. Often shipping the same item from Melbourne to Sydney costs way more than shipping from Hong Kong to Sydney!

I don't get it, because the work required to actually complete the delivery is the same, how can there be such a disparity?

[CunningLinguist]

I don't get how postage from China/HK is so much cheaper than Australia Post. Often shipping the same item from Melbourne to Sydney costs way more than shipping from Hong Kong to Sydney!

I don't get it, because the work required to actually complete the delivery is the same, how can there be such a disparity?

Because Australia post is not competitive.
It is cheaper to send the same package from China/HK here than to send it back.
Australia post must be either making a fortune or be really inefficient ...

[ampletwo]

I guess my point is: regardless where the parcel is sent from, the Australia Post posties are still the ones that end up delivering the parcel. So I reckon Australia Post is ripping Aussies off with their high postage rates, rather than running an inefficient shop.

[Punter Poontang]

Australia post must be either making a fortune or be really inefficient ...

I'm sure there are inefficiencies like with any government-owned monopoly (Telstra / Telecom 20 years ago, anyone?), but to be fair Australian businesses simply incur higher costs than anywhere else in the Asia-Pacific region.

Our standard of living is higher, hence so are our wages, so are land / rent costs for those warehouses, so are fuel / transport costs, and the list goes on.

[ampletwo]

So how can it be fair that a HK sender pays less and gets the same service than a Aussie sender for the same parcel delivered to Australia (this is ignoring the logistics on the HK side)?

Or is it that the Aussie customers are subsidising these increased costs incurred by AusPost, especially considering the volume of incoming parcels owuld be a lot higher than domestics?

[ampletwo]

To go a step further I'd argue this imbalance acts to hamper local businesses competing with international ones because the costs of posting their goods to the customers are so much higher than the international competitors.

[Oneonone]

Because Australia post is not competitive.
It is cheaper to send the same package from China/HK here than to send it back.
Australia post must be either making a fortune or be really inefficient ...

I think they are both!

[CunningLinguist]

I'm sure there are inefficiencies like with any government-owned monopoly (Telstra / Telecom 20 years ago, anyone?), but to be fair Australian businesses simply incur higher costs than anywhere else in the Asia-Pacific region.

Our standard of living is higher, hence so are our wages, so are land / rent costs for those warehouses, so are fuel / transport costs, and the list goes on.

Hmm,. but my simplistic thinking is that the parcel has to be handled by both the chinese and the australians so whichever direction it is going it is getting the same handling, so why then should it cost more to send it the other way ?
Perhaps we have an agrement with the Chinese to handle their incoming parcels cheaply ?
Perhaps the Chinese subsidises their post system for outgoing parcels ?
Perhaps Australia post is a fucked up government monopoly that employs overpaid aussie bludgers ... :)

[wilisno]

Last year, a TV Current Affair investigation stated that, one exactly the same item of merchandise, you can pay twice as much here as you can overseas. It's not because of our tax system or logistic or anything else, it's simply because we can pay it ! Foreign companies know we can pay it !

[Punter Poontang]

Hmm,. but my simplistic thinking is that the parcel has to be handled by both the chinese and the australians so whichever direction it is going it is getting the same handling, so why then should it cost more to send it the other way ?


I think it's more that the fixed costs are borne by the country where it's sent from. As our costs are higher, so is the cost of posting from here.

I highly doubt there's an arrangement where China Post coughs up x% to Australia Post per parcel delivered by an Aussie postie on his bike .... that'd be a nightmare to track globally. Much easier to just set the price locally in each country, as necessary, to ensure the business remains viable.

[aussiegaigin]

I thought there was some financial interchange between postal authorities so the delivering end got some compensation. I recall reading AustPost claiming the delivering of imported parcels from online shopping was propping up the bottom line.

None the less, I am always amazed that I can buy something from HK or China for $2.00 and get "free postage" which includes packing costs.

[CunningLinguist]

I thought there was some financial interchange between postal authorities so the delivering end got some compensation. I recall reading AustPost claiming the delivering of imported parcels from online shopping was propping up the bottom line.

None the less, I am always amazed that I can buy something from HK or China for $2.00 and get "free postage" which includes packing costs.

Yeah lots of things can be bought from HK/China that are cheaper including postage than going to a shop or getting posted from Australia.

[B-man]

So how can it be fair that a HK sender pays less and gets the same service than a Aussie sender for the same parcel delivered to Australia (this is ignoring the logistics on the HK side)?

Or is it that the Aussie customers are subsidising these increased costs incurred by AusPost, especially considering the volume of incoming parcels owuld be a lot higher than domestics?

OK, there are a number of differences. I used to work in HK and imported/exported from there so I know a few things!


HK/China (or Shenzhen in particular) is a hub for international trade. What that means is it's actually really competitive for freight rates out of China and HK. You there are 800,000 trading companies in HK alone! They are all trading towards the rest of the world and many part container ship meaning that a container might have 4-5 different shipments in one. Keeping costs down again so you can ship a few pallets no problem and little cost.
HK/China do both Air and Surface shipments. In Australia for international they only do air now for smaller parcels through Australia post. They might mean surface but it's all air.
Wages - of course Australia is higher than China by 6 fold and most of the work is done at the other end (starting end). Once a parcel comes to Australia it's all delivered by contractors.


The first one is the most important. HK is so competitive for shipping agents and freight forwarders keep costs low.