Some postage rates to rise from 1 July 2014

Some postage rates to rise from 1 July 2014

20 March 2014

The standard letter rate – the cost of sending a medium sized letter by Standard Post within New Zealand – will rise by 10 cents, from 70 cents to 80 cents, from 1 July 2014.

It was last increased two years ago. The price of premium letter services (FastPost and BoxLink) remains at current levels. The price for some larger items will decrease.

New Zealand Post is working more efficiently and will continue to find savings but the increase in postage is also necessary to maintain a national postal service in the face of higher costs, more delivery points and lower mail volumes.

Large Standard Post letters sent within New Zealand will also rise by 20 cents, from $1.40 to $1.60. Extra large and oversize letters will be merged as an oversize letter; the new postage required to send them within New Zealand will be $2.40 – 40 cents less than the current oversize letter price.

Postage to send standard parcels within New Zealand will also change. This includes untracked parcels, which will increase by between 10 cents and $1 depending on the size of the parcel and whether it is self-wrapped or in one of New Zealand Post’s postage included bags.

Sending overseas

The postage required to send aerogrammes, postcards and medium and large letters to any destination overseas will increase by 10 cents.

The price to send extra large and oversize letters overseas will increase by between 10 cents and 30 cents depending on the destination.

Parcels sent overseas will increase by an average of 4%.

The International Economy parcel service will be withdrawn. These parcels can be sent by International Air.

More details can be found at www.nzpost.co.nz/july2014
Media contact: Richard Trow (04) 496 4566

Q&As

1. Why do you need to increase postage?
The increase is necessary to help maintain a viable network servicing all of New Zealand. While we are working more efficiently and will continue to make savings, increasing prices from time to time is also necessary to maintain a national postal service in the face of rising costs, increasing delivery points and sharply declining mail volumes.

2. Why isn't the cost of FastPost letters increasing?

The price to send a FastPost letter was kept at the present rate to reduce the impact on customers who require a faster service.

3. Why are mail volumes falling?
People and businesses are using technologies like email, Smartphones and texting for a lot of their everyday communication.

4. By how much have mail volumes decreased?
Letter volumes declined by about 7.5% (63 million items) last year; and have fallen by a third in total since 2006. In the same period, the number of places we deliver to has risen. Forecasts indicate that between 2005 and 2017 the number of domestic letters delivered per letterbox will fall from 1.8 to 0.8 per day. This reinforces our need to keep making changes to be competitive and sustainable.

5. Why are your costs not falling in line with letter volumes?
We are committed to maintaining a viable network servicing all of New Zealand. The network has fixed costs regardless of the volume of mail entering the network, and the costs are increasing in line with the growing population and the resulting increase in delivery points.

6. How fast is the network expanding?
The New Zealand population rises year on year. Because of this we are delivering to 27,000 more homes than we did two years ago, as well as to more business addresses.

7. How does New Zealand standard postage rate compare with other countries?
The standard letter postage rate in New Zealand is on a par with Australia and Canada and below that of the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Japan.

8. When did you last increase Standard Post?
The last Standard Post increase, when a medium domestic letter increased from 60 cents to 70 cents, was in July 2012. The last increase for domestic parcels was March 2012.

9. How are you letting people know about the postage increase?
New Zealand Post will be writing to all business customers that are affected to explain the changes. All the changes are detailed on www.nzpost.co.nz/july2014 and we are providing leaflets in PostShops and retail outlets.

10. What about CourierPost prices, are they increasing as well?
These increases do not apply to CourierPost products.

11. When do you expect the next price rise?

We review our prices from time to time to take into account changes such as new product offerings and cost increases.

Ends

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