Why is shipping from Australia so expensive?

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#2509368 21-Jun-2020 22:40

Nate001:

Why is it so expensive to ship from <insert country> to NZ?

Everything costs a fortune. I was trying to buy 3D filament from Czech and they quoted $56 EUR ($100 NZD) just for 2kg.

That's rather surprising. I got an 'ARCTIC FREEZER 34 ESPORTS RED CPU COOLER' from Glascow to New Zealand within a week (clearing international custom at the moment). Hopefully arrive in the next couple of days. 19 pound shipping cost overall

Handle9

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#2509402 22-Jun-2020 01:25

Freight to NZ is going to get a lot more expensive when the government subsidies on airfreight end.

Wakrak

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#2509423 22-Jun-2020 07:57

My thinking is that with the amount of air traffic between the two countries (AU, NZ) , surely there's enough space in those planes to fit a couple of parcels and bring shipping cost down a bit?

trig42

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#2509438 22-Jun-2020 08:49

I'm waiting on some clothing from AU. It was sent via AusPost I suspect, as it was sent 5 weeks ago, and hasn't arrived.

Not sure when the what must be a massive pile of post is going to be sent.

BlueShift

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#2509459 22-Jun-2020 09:22

Wakrak: My thinking is that with the amount of air traffic between the two countries (AU, NZ) , surely there's enough space in those planes to fit a couple of parcels and bring shipping cost down a bit?

None of the companies shipping from Aussie to NZ (or anywhere really) are monopolies. If there is a way to consistently ship a route for a significantly lower price, I reckon one of them would be doing it and eating everyone else's lunch.

Bung

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#2509482 22-Jun-2020 10:06

What do you want to buy from Australia? Chances are that it's something they have imported themselves. You'd be better off buying from a country that has geared it's postal and freight system to support massive exporting.

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#2509688 22-Jun-2020 12:48

Wakrak: My thinking is that with the amount of air traffic between the two countries (AU, NZ) , surely there's enough space in those planes to fit a couple of parcels and bring shipping cost down a bit?

How do you think it comes now? Pigeon post?

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Wakrak

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#2509791 22-Jun-2020 15:29

Handle9:

How do you think it comes now? Pigeon post?

African swallow delivery

Put it this way, I barely know anything when it comes to international mail, UPU, or the inner workings of parcel delivery companies.

Kyanar

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#2510100 22-Jun-2020 22:39

Wakrak:

African swallow delivery

Put it this way, I barely know anything when it comes to international mail, UPU, or the inner workings of parcel delivery companies.

I think the point behind the statement, sarcasm aside, is that freight, including letters and postal parcels, already comes on those planes that are flying between the countries. For the national carriers (AusPost, NZPost, etc) they usually use a mix of parcel operators like Parcelair, Atlas Air (who incidentally have a 747 on approach to Auckland right now from Honolulu) and regular commuter flights such as Air NZ and Qantas - Qantas is even flying passenger planes with no passengers on them just to get freight to Auckland, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo (the Australian Government is chartering them). Companies like DHL, UPS, Fedex, Amazon and Toll have their own fleet of aircraft, and can also sell carriage on their aircraft to the postal services (well, not Amazon. You need Prime membership to put things on those planes. Says so on the side. "Prime Air").

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#2510137 23-Jun-2020 01:09

Kyanar:

[For the national carriers (AusPost, NZPost, etc) they usually use a mix of parcel operators like Parcelair, Atlas Air (who incidentally have a 747 on approach to Auckland right now from Honolulu) and regular commuter flights such as Air NZ and Qantas - Qantas is even flying passenger planes with no passengers on them just to get freight to Auckland, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo (the Australian Government is chartering them). Companies like DHL, UPS, Fedex, Amazon and Toll have their own fleet of aircraft, and can also sell carriage on their aircraft to the postal services (well, not Amazon. You need Prime membership to put things on those planes. Says so on the side. "Prime Air").

Excellent, thank you. Definitely helpful. Taking note of what 'Bung' stated earlier in the thread, does it come down to the fact that Australia has better infrastructure, good importing opportunity, and all the necessary facilities? (random guesses). My cpu cooler just arrived today from Scotland, costing me $36 nzd for shipping (Royal mail). If I were to buy the same item from Australia, I feel it would cost the same if not more, despite its close proximity.

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#2510314 23-Jun-2020 09:49

Wakrak:

Excellent, thank you. Definitely helpful. Taking note of what 'Bung' stated earlier in the thread, does it come down to the fact that Australia has better infrastructure, good importing opportunity, and all the necessary facilities? (random guesses). My cpu cooler just arrived today from Scotland, costing me $36 nzd for shipping (Royal mail). If I were to buy the same item from Australia, I feel it would cost the same if not more, despite its close proximity.

Those only contribute to the base cost of the product. The real major contributor is always going to be, quite simply, volume and competition. If there is no competition on that route, or very little competition, then prices will be high. Same if there is little volume. Royal Mail probably sends an astronomical amount of volume compared to NZ Post or even Australia Post (Australia, like NZ, is a net receiver of goods I would imagine). They also likely have the capability to leverage several major freight and commuter carriers in competition to drive their prices down, which they're incentivised to do by the constraining nature of UPU terminal dues (postal services don't pay each other like we do for carrying each other's mail and parcels. They basically just pile it all up and pay a volumetric charge which is basically nothing and does not recover the costs of actually delivering, say, random AliExpress junk. Every time you buy from AliExpress, you literally cost NZ Post money - which is nothing compared to what it costs Australia Post whenever someone orders from AliExpress to Longreach or Port Hedland).

jonb

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#2510357 23-Jun-2020 11:08

At least until recently, it was possible to send sea mail packages from UK to NZ, but since I arrived in NZ in 2007 there hasn't been the cheap sea mail option from NZ out to overseas. I suspect that is also volume related.

Sea mail from Aus most only take a week or so - most of us would be happy with that kind of delivery time, I don't know why NZ Post and prob AUS post insist on Air frieght only. There might be a gap in the market for a 'fill a 20 foot container and send' type of service, there is still the logistics of getting things delivered to the container, then sent on their way at the other side.