Mail and Couriers
New Zealand’s national mail service is provided by the state-owned enterprise New Zealand Post.
Postal services are comprehensive, but are experiencing similar declines in mail volumes to other developed economies where internet use has become an increasingly preferred option.
The change is beginning to directly affect some services. In July 2011 New Zealand Post announced it was stopping overseas surface mail, as volumes have made it uneconomic. Air mail continues to be well supported.
The postal operator has diversified with additional investment in its national courier network Courier Post including an international joint venture with DHL Worldwide, and in 2001 the re-introduction of banking services with the subsidiary company Kiwibank.
Courier and parcel delivery has been a strong growth area, as a result of the local success of New Zealand’s own version of e-bay, which is called TradeMe.
TradeMe has experienced huge success, resulting in a dramatic and on-going rise in the volume of larger items requiring delivery to residential addresses.
Consequently the effect of the growth of the internet has to some degree offset losses experienced by New Zealand Post in the letter delivery segment.
There are no other mail carriers. However, an attempt at competition by National Mail included the installation of Blue post boxes in some centres, and these post boxes are still in place. DO NOT try to post items in the blue National Mail post boxes. They are not cleared. New Zealand Post boxes are red and silver, and are clearly branded.
There is competition in the courier market. Some of the main operators are:
Courier Post - www.courierpost.co.nz
Fastway Couriers - www.fastway.co.nz
Post Haste Couriers - www.posthaste.co.nz
PBT - www.pbt.com
DHL - www.dhl.co.nz
Express Couriers Limited – www.expresscouriers.co.nz
