From the end of June, NZ Post will no longer be delivering newspapers and parcels to rural areas of New Zealand on a Saturday due to a lack of commercial viability. Weekday deliveries will remain unchanged.
NZ Post will write to affected customers about the change, which will also affect rural customers who are PO box holders and currently receive deliveries through the NZ Post Box Lobby service on Saturdays.
The post’s chief operating officer, Brendon Main, explained, “From June 29, 2024, NZ Post will no longer deliver newspapers and parcels on Saturdays in the majority of rural New Zealand, with the exception of 17 rural delivery runs that will be phased out by June 2025. These 17 delivery runs are in Canterbury and Waikato and are being kept in place to give our business customers more time to put alternative arrangements in place for their customers.
“It is important to note that there will be no changes to rural mail delivery as we do not currently deliver mail on Saturdays to any address. Rural mail delivery will still take place Monday to Friday, and we will still be fulfilling our obligations under the Deed of Understanding, which is an agreement we have with government that includes how often we deliver mail.”
“We acknowledge the affect that ceasing Saturday deliveries may have on Kiwis who live at a rural address. This is not a decision that we have made lightly, and we empathize with those who could be impacted by this change,” Main continued.
Postal transformation
The decision to change rural delivery services is part of NZ Post’s ongoing period of transformation in response to the continuing decline in mail volumes and growth in e-commerce, while charting a path toward commercial sustainability without government funding, according to Main.
“We need to make some hard decisions about our future and the services we offer as we evolve to meet the needs of New Zealanders,” he added. “We are continuing to invest in growing an unmatched delivery business, while managing a transition to a commercially sustainable mail delivery service as we move toward a single network for mail and courier delivery as announced on March 26, 2024. These are not always easy decisions to make, and we again acknowledge the impact on rural communities.”