Does Auspost Deliver on Saturday

Australia Post does deliver on Saturdays, but it is only available for mail and parcel send with Express Post on a Friday. The mailer must be sent to an address within the designated Saturday delivery network. Besides, standard letters, postcards, and regular parcels are deliverable only on normal business days. 

Time-sensitive mail is often stressful, especially when the weekend is near. Weekend delivery might be possible, but it is more of an exception than a rule. You must understand Australia Post’s network requirements and service conditions to know about weekend deliveries better. 

This guide will help you qualify for Saturday delivery, strict cut-off times, and the address types excluded from this possibility.

But, if you’re here, reading this article right now, it’s because you heard about Aus Post Sat delivery. So, does an option exist where you can deliver mail on Saturdays? If so, how can you access this service?

Well, let us put your mind at ease by first saying that the Australia Post Saturday Delivery option does indeed exist. However, using the Saturday Delivery option is not as easy as you might think. Below, we explain everything you need to know about Saturday Delivery.

But, more importantly, we answer the question, “Does AusPost deliver on Saturdays?”

TL;DR 

• Australia Post only delivers mail items for Express Post mail and parcels sent on a Friday with an eligible delivery address. 
• Senders must lodge their items at the Post Office before the Friday cut-off time (5:00 p.m., location dependent).
• There are no additional charges for Express Post Saturday deliveries; you only need to attach the “Saturday Delivery” sticker. 
• The Saturday delivery service is only available for deliveries within the same state. 

Key Takeaways 

• Saturday delivery is an exception rather than a delivery option because it has specific eligibility requirements. 
• Weekend delivery is heavily dependent on the destination postcode to avoid out-of-network regions in the country. 
• Australia Post does not deliver on Sundays or public holidays; the only exception is the busy Christmas season. 
• Typical Saturday Express Post deliveries are completed between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. 
• Not following the cut-off times, sticker requirement, or sending to an ineligible area will process your mail on the next business day instead of Saturday.

Australia Post Saturday deliveries are only available for Express Post mail and parcels. Individuals and businesses that send an Express Post on a Friday right before the cut-off time (Friday 5:00 p.m., location dependent) can use Australia Post Sat Delivery. It ensures that their mail delivery is not delayed.

However, you’d be wrong if you think anyone can use this unique service from Australia Post to deliver their mailer on a Saturday. To access the Aus Post Sat Delivery option, the address needs to be within the Express Post Saturday Delivery area.

Furthermore, the address should be within the same state. If you meet all of these requirements, you can access the Auspost Sat Delivery for your business communication. You need to purchase an Express Post satchel or pay the postage, and physically attach a specific “Saturday Delivery” sticker to the item. 

The deliveries are made between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. on Saturdays in most cases. Besides, there’s no additional postage cost beyond the standard Express Post rate.

Standard letters, postcards, bills, and other business communications are strictly limited to business days (Monday to Friday). Australia Post doesn’t deliver these mailers on Saturday. Even if you drop your mailers on a Friday morning, they will not be processed during the weekend. 

Businesses must plan their direct mail campaigns or time-sensitive mailers carefully around business days only. In fact, it is the only way to prevent mailers sitting over the weekend. 

Terms and Conditions for Saturday Express Post Deliveries 

1. Friday Cut-off Time: You must lodge the mail item on Friday before the cut-off time. Typically, it’s 5:00 p.m. (location dependent) across Post Offices in Australia. However, it could be different for yellow Express Post street posting boxes. So, you need to confirm the collection time for your local box.
2. Saturday Delivery Sticker: You also have to physically attach a “Saturday Delivery” sticker to your Express Post parcel. Otherwise, the postal workers might not prioritise your mail. You can get these strikers from a post office or business hub.
3. Intrastate Shipping Only: Both the sender and the recipient must be located in the same state for a Saturday delivery. Otherwise, this service isn’t available for interstate deliveries. 
4. Eligible Address Types: The destination address must be a physical residential address, business address, or a 24/7 accessible Parcel Locker. 
5. Address Exclusions: Express Post Saturday delivery is unavailable for P.O. Boxes, Locked Bags, or unopened business hubs. 

Does Australia Post Deliver on Sundays or Public Holidays? 

The direct answer to the question is “no”. Neither Standard Mail nor Express Post delivers mail on Sundays. In fact, they don’t operate on state, regional, or national public holidays. 

The holiday season during Christmas is the only exception. It is the busiest mailing season of the year. Most postal workers have to work overtime to process high-volume mail across the country. So, Australia Post mobilises its employees to deliver parcels on both Saturdays and Sundays to clear the massive Christmas backlog. However, this is only a temporary operational surge. Don’t consider this an extended service by Australia Post to deliver on Sundays. 

How Saturday Deliveries Depend on Postcode or Location? 

Australia Post cannot cover the entire country to make Saturday deliveries possible. It’s not practically possible to send a package from the East Coast to the West Coast on weekends. In fact, eligibility is strictly dependent on the destination postcode. It must fall within the Express Post Saturday delivery network. Otherwise, the postal carrier will process your mailer on the next business day (Monday). 

It’s better not to promise a weekend delivery to your customers. Verify the specific destination postcode with the official Australia Post delivery calculator.

Sending a postal mail using Aus Post Sat Delivery is pretty simple. But unfortunately, most companies have no idea how to do it. So, below we provide a simple three-step guide you need to follow for sending a postal mail with Saturday delivery.

Step 1: Check Delivery Areas

The first thing you need to do is check the delivery area and learn whether AusPost delivers mail on Saturday to that location. So, don’t be shy to check with Australia Post regarding the availability of Aus Post Sat Delivery to your destination.

Step 2: Attach A Saturday Deliver Sticker

At this point, you have confirmed that the delivery destination is eligible for Saturday Delivery. Now, you can get the Express Post Saturday Delivery sticker from Australia Post.

You can get the Saturday Delivery sticker directly from the participating Post Offices or Business Hubs.

Suppose your business often requires you to make Saturday deliveries or has a bulk mail requirement. It would be best to buy Express Post satchels in bulk online from the Australia Post website. After you pay the necessary postage, all that’s left to do is apply the Aus Post Sat Delivery sticker to the Parcel.

Step 3: Send Your Mail On A Friday

The last step for sending an Express Parcel with Saturday Delivery is to ensure that you send it within the cut-off time. As you may already know, there are three ways of sending your Express Parcel via Australia Post, and they are

• Send mail from a Post Office
• Send mail from an Express Post street posting box
• Send postal mail through a pre-arranged pick-up

As long as you meet the cut-off time, it doesn’t matter which of the above methods you choose for Aus Post Sat delivery.

Hence, it would be best if you made it a point to send your direct mail within the time frame specified by Australia Post.

 Also Read: Debt Collection Letter Template

Now that you know you can deliver your postal mail on Saturdays, you must be wondering about Sunday deliveries. And then there are, of course, the holidays. If a business organisation can find a way around Saturday and holiday deliveries, it has mastered direct mail.

But, if you want a little helping hand with mastering direct mail yourself you can always read our comprehensive guide to direct mail.

But, here is the thing. Australia Post does not do Sunday deliveries, except in some rare cases. These rare cases usually arise due to the high demand for postal services during the holiday season.

Unlike AusPost Sat Delivery, these Sunday deliveries are not a service you can opt for.

Federal Institutions And Weekends

There is a simple reason why Australia Post – a federal institution, does not deliver on weekends under normal circumstances. Like any other federally-owned corporation, AusPost also doesn’t require its employees to work on weekends.

The only exception here is the AusPost Sat Delivery. Even the Saturday Delivery is limited on weekends as it only applies to Express Post deliveries. 

Postal Mail Deliveries On Holidays

If you thought that there was some way you could work around a holiday and get your mail delivered, we are afraid that you are wrong. Because AusPost does not deliver mail on state, regional, or even local public holidays. Even the Express Parcel delivery is no exception to this.

PostGrid is direct mail automation software that lets businesses streamline direct mail communication. In other words, PostGrid optimises all your postal mail processes with its advanced automation, including Aus Post Sat Delivery.

Below, we list some of how PostGrid can help your company’s Saturday Delivery.

Scheduled Deliveries

One of the challenging things about Express Parcel with Saturday Delivery is that you need to send the mail within the cut-off time. Often businesses have a hard time meeting this deadline, and it could delay the delivery of your mail.

Now, imagine this happening to a critical or time-sensitive document. It could be a collection letter from a financial institution a lab report from a hospital, or so on. PostGrid offers a scheduling capability, which automatically sends the mail when you set it.

As a result, you will never have to miss another Aus Post Sat Delivery because you missed the deadline on Friday.

Address Verification and Standardisation

No matter what postal service you use or how fast it is, there is not much AusPost can do if the address you use is wrong. Whatever mail your business sends first needs to be sorted, and only then can Australia Post deliver it.

PostGrid offers an advanced address verification solution that standardises your addresses against AusPost’s official address database. Furthermore, our tool ensures that the address printed on your mailers for Aus Post Sat Delivery is standardised.

Hence, the sorting tool can quickly sort and process your business mailer and speed up its delivery.

Any business that relies on postal mail for marketing and communication has asked themselves, “Does AusPost deliver on Saturday?” Generally, the answer to this is no, unless you are using Express Parcel with Saturday Delivery.

The best way to ensure that your Saturday Delivery goes as planned is to use an automated direct mail system like PostGrid. One of the biggest challenges in using Saturday Delivery is the cut-off time. Unless you can send the mail before the cut-off time on Friday, your mail won’t get delivered on time.

A manual direct mail process often runs into delays. It causes errors that could jeopardise the delivery time of your mail.

Hence, it is best to use an automated system like PostGrid to schedule your mail delivery. As a result, you can always ensure punctual Aus Post Sat Delivery even if you are not present to manage it.