{New Zealand’s postal service is set to reduce the frequency of its basic deliveries, as customers increasingly turn to electronic communication.}<\/p>\n
In an agreement with the government, six-day-a-week deliveries in urban areas may drop to just three days starting in June 2015.<\/p>\n
Services in rural areas, where customers tend to rely more on mail, will be maintained at five days.<\/p>\n
The postal service said the move was needed for its financial viability.<\/p>\n
“The change in delivery frequency at some point is inevitable given the ongoing and rapid decline in letter mail volumes,” the New Zealand Post said in a statement. <\/p>\n
It added that while parcel volumes “have increased by nearly three million since 2006”, letter volumes over the same period dropped by at least 30%.<\/p>\n
It was not immediately clear how many jobs would be lost as a result of the planned cut in deliveries.<\/p>\n
Communications and Information Technology Minister Amy Adam said in a statement that postal volume decline in New Zealand was at 8% per annum.<\/p>\n
She said that if changes were not made to the government’s agreement with the service, “then significant and ongoing government subsidisation” may be required.<\/p>\n
The set minimum standards apply to basic standard postal services and do not include others like express mail or courier post, she added.<\/p>\n
BBC<\/p>\n
The change is scheduled to take place in June 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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