Postal Services Act, 1998 (Act No. 124 of 1998)Accounting Separation Regulations for Reserved Postal Services10. Cost Centre Cost Pools |
| 1) | Costs are to be accumulated by the major cost pool groups within each cost centre. |
| 2) | Costs within the Consumer Cost Centre are to be allocated to the following major cost pools- |
| a) | Mail Box Rentals includes the combination of expenses and assets that are used to provide mail box rentals. Expenses include labour, materials, depreciation and associated facility costs. This segment includes all mailboxes rented to end consumers only and not where mailboxes are provided free of charge as the primary means of delivery; |
| b) | Receiving Mail for Domestic Services up to 1 kg includes the combination of expenses and assets related to the collection of letters already having postage affixed on them and non-stamped mail. Expenses include the mail receptacle and any labour associated with the collection; |
| c) | Receiving Small Parcels includes the combination of expenses and assets related to the receipt of small parcels for delivery, including the completion of labels or affixing postage, weighing and/or measuring the item, scanning, registering or logging, and receiving compensation for the small parcel item; |
| d) | Receiving Courier Packages includes the combination of expenses and assets related to the receipt of courier packages for delivery, including the completion of labels, weighing and/or measuring the package, scanning, registering or logging, and receiving compensation for the courier item; |
| e) | Receiving Other Parcels includes the combination of expenses and assets related to the receipt of other parcels for delivery, including the completion of labels or affixing postage, weighing and/or measuring the parcel, scanning, registering or logging, and receiving compensation for the parcel item; |
| f) | Delivering Mail includes the combination of expenses and assets for delivering mail items in postal boxes or delivering over the counter, such as general delivery items; |
| g) | Delivering Small Parcels and Packages includes the combination of expenses and assets for delivering parcels and packages items in postal boxes or delivering over the counter, such as general delivery items. Feature-related activities are also included here, such as collecting money when the item is "cash on delivery", obtaining signatures when required, scanning when required, and any other feature-related service; |
| h) | Delivering Courier Packages includes the combination of expenses and assets for delivering courier packages items over the counter. Feature-related activities are also included, such as collecting money when the item is "cash on delivery", obtaining signatures when required, scanning when required, and any other feature-related service; |
| i) | Delivery and Acceptance for Registered items includes the combination of expenses and assets specific to activities required for registered mail delivery; |
| j) | Selling Postage Stamps includes the combination of expenses and assets related to the sale of postage; |
| k) | Selling Philatelic Products includes the combination of expenses and assets related to the selling of philatelic products. Some estimate should be made as to what extent of this activity is for collector purposes versus postage method of payment on mail; |
| l) | Selling Other Reserved Services includes the combination of expenses and assets related to selling activities for other reserved area services; |
| m) | Selling Other Unreserved Services includes the combination of expenses and assets related to selling activities for unreserved area services; |
| n) | Conducting Customer Service Activities includes the combination of expenses and assets related to the conduct of customer service activities, such as receiving and/or resolving customer complaints, answering questions of customers and potential customers, and engaging in goodwill activities with customers and communities; and |
| 3) | Costs within the Transport Cost Centre are to be allocated to the following major cost pools- |
| a) | Transport between Major Processing Centres includes the combination of expenses and assets related to transporting mail from one major processing centre to another. The service may be owned or rented and may include road, rail, air, or marine transportation modes. |
| b) | Transport to International includes the combination of expenses and assets related to transporting mail related to transporting mail sent from a South African gateway to a foreign destination. The service may be owned or rented. |
| c) | Transport to Delivery Centre includes the combination of expenses and assets related to transporting mail related to receiving mail sent from a South African processing centre to a delivery centre. The service may be owned or rented. These services are almost always by road. |
| 4) | Costs within the Processing Cost Centre are to be allocated to the following major cost pools- |
| a) | Processing Standard Letter Mail includes the combination of expenses and assets related to the receipt and despatch of letter mail items, containers, and pallets (dock activities), bypass handling for pre-sorted mail, electronic scanning/encoding of envelopes, the culling and facing of mail items, revenue verification procedures, sortation to local and forward destinations, sortation to delivery route, border handling, and possibly sortation to delivery sequence. It also includes added costs of address correction, verification, or handling for inadequately addressed items. Expenses and assets will include plant, equipment, labour, supervision, maintenance, and repairs. |
| b) | Processing Small Parcels includes the combination of expenses and assets related to the receipt and despatch of small parcel items, containers, and pallets (dock activities), revenue verification, operational bar coding, the manual or mechanized sortation to local and forward destinations, border handling, and the sortation to delivery route. Expenses and assets will include plant, equipment, labour, supervision, maintenance, and repairs. |
| c) | Processing Courier Packages includes the combination of expenses and assets related to the receipt and dispatch of courier items, containers, and pallets (dock activities), revenue verification, operational bar coding, the manual or mechanized sortation to local and forward destinations, border handling, security handling, scanning and general tracking, and the sortation to delivery route. It will also include any interchange with other owned or unowned courier operations. Expenses and assets will include plant, equipment, labour, supervision, maintenance, and repairs. |
| d) | Processing Other Parcels includes the combination of expenses and assets related to the receipt and dispatch of other parcel items than listed previously herein or associated containers and pallets (dock activities), revenue verification, operational bar coding, the manual or mechanised sortation to local and forward destinations, border handling, and the sortation to delivery route. Expenses and assets will include plant, equipment, labour, supervision, maintenance, and repairs. |
| e) | Processing Electronic/Hybrid Mail Items includes the combination of expenses and assets related to the electronic receipt and sortation to central or geographically decentralized print and pack centres, where print orders are scheduled, prepared, run, validated, "packed" in envelopes, addressed, and inducted into the public mail stream for delivery. |
| f) | Processing Other Reserved Services includes the combination of expenses and assets related to processing reserved area products not previously listed (for example, sorting advertising mail bundles or pieces). |
| g) | Processing Other Unreserved Services includes the combination of expenses and assets related to processing unreserved area products not previously listed. |
| 5) | Collection and Delivery cost centre costs are to be allocated to the following major cost pools: |
| a) | Collecting Letter-mail includes the combination of expenses and assets related to collecting Letter-mail which is be cleared from postal collection boxes/receptacles or picked up from large mailers. Direct receipt of mail from mailers is to be included as an activity in the Processing Cost Centre. |
| b) | Delivering Letter-mail includes the combination of expenses and assets related to inside (delivery facility) and outside activities for delivery agents. These activities include the preparation of mail, a travel "stem" time (getting to and from the delivery route itself), the basic core delivery activity (which can in turn through various formulae be broken down into a volume-related non-volume related component), product-dependent activities carried out at time of delivery (collection of funds and/or signature, scanning or other tracking activities, notification of delivery attempt), and return of miss-sorted items into the postal stream. To facilitate accounting separation this cost pool may be further disaggregated into: |
| i) | Post Office Box Delivery includes the combination of expenses and assets related to deliveries to post office boxes; |
| ii) | Consumer Outlets Delivery includes the combination of expenses and assets related to deliveries to retail outlets; |
| iii) | Residential Delivery includes the combination of expenses and assets related to deliveries to destination addresses; |
| iv) | Parcel Delivery includes the combination of expenses and assets related to parcel deliveries to destination addresses; |
| v) | Courier Delivery includes the combination of expenses and assets related to courier deliveries to destination addresses; |
| c) | Other Collection Services includes the combination of expenses and assets related to other collection activities that are not listed in these regulations. |
| d) | Other Delivery Activities includes the combination of expenses and assets related to other delivery activities that are not listed in these regulations. |