IT'S the death of the letterbox . . . door-to-door postal services on the nation's urban fringe face extinction as Australia Post prepares to roll out fully-automated community mail centres.
A Sunday Mail investigation has found Australia Post has already earmarked parts of southeast Queensland and western Sydney, the nation's top growth corridors, to install the new mail "hubs".
Instead of having mail delivered to their homes, residents will be forced to travel to their "community mailbox", where they will use a swipe card or type in a pin code to access their mail.
Residents will be alerted by SMS when mail is ready to be collected.
If there are also parcels to collect, residents will be advised when they log in to pick up mail that they should proceed to larger boxes at the community centre.
The secured parcel boxes will be set up to accept electronic signatures.
Local councils and the Urban Development Institute of Australia are likely to support the changes.
But the move is expected to be opposed by many residents, particularly the elderly, who may have difficulty travelling regularly from their homes to collect mail.
The nation's leading postal union, the CEPU, fears postal workers will lose their jobs, and has threatened to walk away from pay talks, after being left in the dark by Australia Post about the initiative.
Ipswich City Council and the Urban Development Institute of Australia held talks with Australia Post on a "trial location" for a community mail centre on March 17.
Ipswich city councillor Paul Tully told The Sunday Mail the new developments of Augustine Heights, Redbank Plains South, Spring Mountain and Ripley Valley were being targeted.
"It will be the end of mail getting flogged," Cr Tully said.
He said Australia Post officials told him they were worried about "rising costs and declining mail volumes".
"They certainly see this as Australia Post's future," Cr Tully said.
Urban Development Institute of Australia Queensland president Warren Harris has asked for the mail hubs to be dispersed throughout the new suburbs.
Under current plans, a minimum of 1200 mail boxes will be installed at each site.
But Mr Harris said it could require extra carpark spaces.
"The major road corridors leading into developments will be where you will collect your mail on the way home," Mr Harris said.
"Preferences have shifted from writing letters and to continue to deliver mail to households is not financially viable."
But CEPU communications division divisional secretary Ed Husic has accused Australia Post of taking a "run and gun" approach to the union.
Relations between the union and Australia Post hit an all-time low last year, when the nation's 2500 postal employees staged rolling stoppages in the lead-up to Christmas.
Last month, the union agreed to a truce while negotiations continued over a wage deal.
"If Australia Post believes it can straight-jacket us through wage talks, we are not impressed," Mr Husic said.
"I would suggest a lot of consumers would be appalled by this move."
But leading Australian demographer Bernard Salt believes the move is a "no-brainer" and will significantly cut the carbon footprint created by postal services.
"I am not sure that it is the death of the postie, but he is looking pretty sick," Mr Salt said.
Australia Post chief executive Ahmed Fahour said there were no plans for a nationwide rollout of mail centres, citing community service obligations.
"We have no plans whatsoever to do this to existing households," Mr Fahour said.
"We see our community service obligations as our DNA. But we are also a business and we have to turn a profit.
"We're interested in providing options for the community.
"Developers like it because they think it attracts people to a central hub in the suburbs."
