Friday, August 13, 2010

NZ Post hikes postage rates

If the increase in the Government's GST (grab, snatch and take) on 1 October wasn't bad enough, NZ Post has announced big increases in postage rates to take effect on the same day.

Postage for a Standard Post medium letter for delivery in New Zealand jumps 20% by 10 cents to 60 cents (although if you think this is bad, spare a thought for those in Denmark who now have to pay 7.75 Kroner [about $1.90] for the same thing).

The postage for larger letter sizes for delivery in New Zealand and by FastPost will also increase.

Postal Services boss Peter Fenton said the increase in domestic postage was one of the measures needed to maintain the postal network in the face of rising costs, increasing delivery points and declining mail volumes.

"In the past five years, mail volumes have declined by over 100 million to 887 million items – that's a drop of over 10%. In the same period, the number of places we deliver to has risen by more than 160,000 to almost 1.9 million addresses. So we are delivering 20% less mail per mailbox than we did just three years ago," Mr Fenton said.

Well, how much more will the volumes decline with these increases?


Details of all postage and other changes at www.nzpost.co.nz/october2010

No comments: