Postal Service to Reduce Deliveries from 2015

With more people emailing their correspondence rather than popping it in the mailbox, New Zealand Post will deliver mail as infrequently as three days a week to most customers from June 2015.

The move could foreshadow similar changes in other countries as businesses and residents increasingly move online to communicate and pay bills.

Instead of delivering mail six days a week, the service will be required to deliver a minimum three days a week in urban areas and five days a week in rural areas, which tend to rely more on mail. About 12 per cent of customers live in rural areas.

New Zealand Post has been lobbying for the change, saying it was barely breaking even on its mail deliveries and would soon begin losing money unless it was allowed to cut back.

Mail volumes in the South Pacific nation of 4.5 million people have dropped by a quarter in the last decade and the decline appears to be accelerating.

“Around the world postal volumes are declining,” communications minister Amy Adams said. “In New Zealand, this is at a rate of about 8 per cent per annum.”