Licensees

Licensee News

Australia Post and Rural Bank announce proposed partnership

August 2, 2011

POAAL welcomes today’s announcement of a proposed partnership between Australia Post and Rural Bank to distribute banking services via regional and rural post offices. This new partnership should provide a welcome new business stream for Licensed Post Offices in rural areas.

POAAL appears before NBN Committee

August 1, 2011

POAAL CEO Ian Kerr was invited to attend the most recent hearings of the NBN Joint Parliamentary Committee held in Melbourne. He took the opportunity to push the cause of those 464 LPOs that don't have access to Australia Post's point-of-sale network.

Small Business Dispute Resolution

July 19, 2011

The Federal Government has been considering options for a national small business dispute resolution service. POAAL made a submission in response to the Government's options paper.

Proposed changes to prices surveillance of letters

July 13, 2011

The Federal Government is considering making changes to the scope of letters services that are subject to pricing scrutiny by the ACCC. POAAL has made a submission to the Government on this matter.

NBN and installing EPOS at manual LPOs

July 7, 2011

POAAL has made a submission to the federal parliament's Joint Committee on the National Broadband Network detailing some of the current challenges facing Australia Post’s retail network, and how the NBN could help overcome these challenges, in particular, how the NBN could reduce a significant cost barrier to installing EPOS in small LPOs.

ACCC to allow increase in business letter prices

June 23, 2011

The ACCC has announced that it will not object to Australia Post's proposal to increase prices across a number of its monopoly business mail letter services.

Licensee Resources

POAAL has researched and prepared some simple resources for current and prospective Licensee members. These free resources are just a sample of some of the resources available to financial members of POAAL.

The Franchising Code of Conduct regulates the conduct of franchisees and franchisors. It is a mandatory industry code under the Trade Practices Act.

The Code protects prospective and current franchisees through its disclosure provisions and its dispute resolution procedure.

The ACCC has responsibility of administering the Franchising Code of Conduct and investigating potential breaches. It may also facilitate discussion between franchisees and franchisors to resolve problems, avoiding the potential for matters being escalated to a point where breaches of the Act arise.

Licensed Post Offices are deemed to be franchisees under the Franchising Code of Conduct and as a result Australia Post and Licensees are bound by the Code. The Code provides Licensees with an extra level of protection in addition to the LPO Agreement.

Information onthe Franchising Code of Conduct can be found on the ACCC website.

Franchisee manual

The ACCC has put together a franchisee manual to help franchisees and prospective franchisees to understand their rights and responsibilities under the Franchising Code of Conduct. The manual can be downloaded from the ACCC website.

Disclosure Document

Each year, Australia Post is obliged under the Franchising Code of Conduct to prepare a disclosure document for every Licensed Post Office.

Australia Post must provide a copy of the disclosure document to prospective Licensees at least 14 days before the incoming Licensee takes over the LPO.

Under the terms of the Franchising Code of Conduct, Australia Post is required to provide disclosure documents to existing franchisees (Licensees) within 14 days of request. The disclosure document must be updated annually, within four months of the end of the financial year.

This means that Australia Post must have an up-to-date disclosure document prepared for each LPO by 31 October each year. Licensees should request an up-to-date disclosure document from Australia Post each year. By requesting the disclosure document at the beginning of November Licensees will guarantee that they receive the most recent disclosure document relating to their business.

Some of the information included in the disclosure document includes:

details of the franchisor (Australia Post), including the business experience of Australia Post management
any plans Australia Post may have to establish another outlet nearby
details of any litigation involving Australia Post

Current Licensees should mark it on the calendar – request a disclosure document every year from Australia Post. Note that current Licensees can only request a disclosure document from Australia Post once every 12 months.

POAAL has prepared a pro forma letter that Licensees can use to request a copy of the disclosure document from Australia Post.