Australia Post rival shuts operations without warning
Australian businesses and consumers are left searching for answers after an Australia Post delivery rival ceased operations without warning.
Sydney-based Sendle emailed its business customers late on Sunday to warn that all pickup and delivery bookings would be suspended “effective immediately”.
The decision comes five months after the company merged with two US firms and 12 years after the start-up vowed to challenge Australia Post on parcel deliveries.
The closure is expected to hit small businesses the hardest, as the company has ties to online providers Shopify and eBay Australia, but consumers waiting for packages delivered by Sendle may also miss out.
Sendle’s message to customers warned that the company will no longer accept parcel delivery bookings as of January 12 and that existing deliveries may not reach their destination.
“All packages already received and in transit will be delivered at the discretion of the delivery partner,” the message said. it said.
“Existing reservations scheduled for pickup on or after January 12 will be cancelled.”
In a statement, the company offered few details about the sudden closure or what it would mean for its customers.
“Sendle has informed its customers that it will no longer be taking future bookings,” he said.
“We cannot comment further at this time.”
Sendle was founded in 2014 as a rival to Australia Post, offering door-to-door deliveries at a lower cost than rivals’ Parcel or Express Mail services.
Founded by James Chin Moody, Sean Geoghegan and Craig Davis, the company has signed deals with the likes of Shopify, eBay Australia, Squarespace and WooCommerce to provide shipping solutions to small merchants, while also offering carbon-neutral deliveries.
In an interview with AAP, Mr Moody said the national postal system was “vulnerable to disruption” and Australia Post should be forced to work with providers such as Sendle to improve its delivery network.
“How does Australia Post serve the national interest?” he said.
“Does it serve by being a competitor and trying to become a monopoly, which we believe drives up prices, or does it serve by saying we want to be a platform for an entire delivery ecosystem?”
In August, Sendle merged with two US firms, FirstMile and ACI Logistix, to form FAST Group, which serves customers in the US, Australia, Canada, India and the Philippines.
But Sydney investment firm Federation Asset Management, one of the investors in the merged company, froze redemptions on its fund in December after questions were raised about the financial statements.
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