Digital mail box among ideas to save NZ Post

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New Zealand Post says substantial job losses are inevitable if proposed changes to the frequency of its mail delivery go ahead.
 
The state-owned company wants to reduce the number of days it delivers each week but the Government will have to agree first.
 
Eight hundred million pieces of mail were delivered last year - that may sound like a lot but NZ Post says households are only receiving half the amount of mail they were a decade ago.
 
So in order to continue being profitable, it wants to cut delivery from six to three days a week.
 
“We do want to look for more flexibility around delivery because we are facing this continuous, ongoing and probably accelerating decline in the usage of letters,” says NZ Post chairman Michael Cullen.
 
But before that can happen NZ Post needs Government approval.
 
It is bound by a ‘deed of understanding’ to deliver mail to 95 percent of delivery points six days a week.
 
The matter is yet to be officially discussed but 3 News understands preliminary talks indicate the Government is sympathetic.
 
NZ Post chief executive Brian Roche says fewer letters coupled with fewer delivery days would mean fewer jobs.
 
“Look, I don't think attrition is going to look after this I think this is going to be substantial when we get to it,” he says.
 
But the Postal Workers Union of Aotearoa is hopeful the rise of internet shopping and parcel delivery will help.
 
“That will have some effect of offsetting the decline in letter volume - so everything needs to be taken into account,” says union secretary Graeme Clarke.
 
But NZ Post says it is not enough and it is also out of short-term fixes.
 
New products like a digital mail box are in the pipeline but it has the added pressure of Kiwibank, whose rapid growth means a major injection of capital is needed keep up with demand.
 
“We'd like it to come from government but we'll have to stand in the queue like everybody else,” says Mr Roche.

Money from NZ Post funded the set up of Kiwibank but now both arms of the business need financial help for contrasting reasons.

Published by 3 News and written by Dan Parker
Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/Digital-mail-box-among-ideas-to-save-NZ-Post/tabid/421/articleID/251993/Default.aspx#ixzz1tEyHKz9Y

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[Babs]

If they had special postage days like cheap postage for Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day and Christmas they might make themselves a bit more user friendly, why dont they promote things like this instead of putting the postage up.

We have emailed them and suggested this but got gobble-de-gook goverment-department-speak back!