Changes to our sending to New Zealand parcel and mail rates and services from 1 July 2024 

We’re committed to delivering what people care about, to help businesses thrive in an evolving digital world, and to be the delivery provider of choice. Through our ongoing research, we have a deep understanding of what people want. This is recognised in our findings that when NZ Post is the delivery partner it has shown to increase e-commerce sales*.

The decline in mail volume is continuing to significantly challenge the viability of providing mail services to and within New Zealand. While we’re looking to reduce costs wherever possible, we need to continue to consider all possible options to deliver a financially sustainable mail service. 

*TRA 2023, The Impact of Retailer Delivery Experience.

Sending to NZ parcel rates and services.

Sending to NZ mail rates and services.

See our questions and answers for more information.

Sending to NZ parcel rates and services

At NZ Post, we're not just about delivering parcels. We're focused on sustainability and ensuring that your customers receive their packages with care, whilst maintaining our commitment to social and environmental responsibility. We’re building a future-ready network that offers reliable, resilient, and visible services today and for predicted future growth. Despite more challenging economic times we will continue to invest in customer experience alongside our network reach to meet future demand. We know that what we're doing is working, as simply using NZ Post as a delivery option can increase online sales by 9%, * when compared to other providers.

Your ongoing partnership in 2024 will see us continue to deliver for you and your customers. For more detail on these upcoming changes, please don’t hesitate to contact your Business Manager.

*TRA 2023, The Impact of Retailer Delivery Experience.

Customs & Recovery

We’ve changed our pricing structure to provide you with a more simplified structure for your import handling and border process charges.  Please refer to your APA letter for details on how this change will impact you, or speak to your Business Manager for more information.

Parcels

Courier Price changes are effective upon the manifest header date or the electronic border agency acknowledgment of your shipment. The charges are effective on lodgment of the manifest data. Please note that the rates applied will reflect those in effect on the specified date. If you submit this information by pre-alert, while we strive to process all pre-alerts received prior to Saturday June 29, 8am NZT, delays may occur due to border agency responses resulting in some shipments being processed on or after 1 July 2024. 

Complying with our sending standards

We know how important it is to get your parcels delivered first time. So, when sending parcels, please make sure you understand and comply with our sending standards: 

  1. Follow correct addressing guidelines and ensure contact details on the label are valid and legible. 
  2. To ensure your parcel arrives safely, follow our packaging guidelines. 
  3. To avoid non-compliance charges, please ensure items are correctly ticketed and do not exceed size and weight limitations. 

Items must also be labelled correctly and be able to be scanned. In instances where we receive poor quality or illegible labels, we are unable to validate the parcel for border clearance and are required to relabel these parcels. We will endeavor to reprint a label to enable us to clear border requirements and deliver the item. There is a charge shown in your schedule for any labels required to be reprinted.

Gold Standard Manifest v2 structure

We’d like to remind you that we have updated the Gold Standard Manifest in preparation for the opening of our Auckland Processing Centre (APC) this year. We are targeting to transition acceptance of overseas items into New Zealand in July 2024. The updated manifest allows for the declaration of parcel dimensions and/or volumetric weight in addition to weight. While these fields are currently optional, in time they will become mandatory when sending to NZ.  Providing dimensions allows us to better manage demand forecasting and transportation of your parcel within our network. Please refer to the International Commercial Postal Users Guide for more details on how we rate your parcels and how you are invoiced. Your bill is based on whichever is greater, whether it be the weight declared, actual weight or volumetric weight. 

Mail rates and services 

The decline in mail volume is continuing to significantly challenge the viability of providing mail services to and within New Zealand. While we are looking to reduce costs wherever possible, we need to continue to pursue all options possible to deliver a financially sustainable mail service. 

As we advised last year, NZ Post has reached the end of Government funding support for mail services. This funding allowed NZ Post to continue to provide nationwide coverage for mail delivery at current service levels and with price increases lower than what they otherwise would have needed to be. 

With the conclusion of this funding NZ Post is required to transition to a mail business that is financially viable long-term.

In addition to price increases, NZ Post will be making business changes to achieve the necessary cost reductions that will help achieve a financially viable long-term future for mail.

However, there are currently no plans to change the mail delivery service (nationwide delivery, currently three days per week in urban areas and five days per week in Rural areas and five-six days per week for delivery to PO Boxes). So, the existing services will continue unless otherwise advised. 

The increases to be applied on 1 July 2024 are summarised below. For more information or guidance on these upcoming changes, please don’t hesitate to contact your Business Manager.

See our questions and answers for more information

Sending to NZ Standard mail rates and services

We are increasing the price of Standard Mail letter products. New prices will apply from 1 July 2024. The new prices are set out below and all prices are shown in NZD (excluding GST).

Size Standard Mail ReplyPaid
Medium – Approved (ReplyPaid Only) - $1.9130
Medium $2.0000 $2.0000
Large $3.1304 $3.1304
Oversize $4.2609 $4.2609

Please refer to the International Standard Mail Rate Card (PDF - 60KB) for pricing. New prices will apply from 1 July 2024.

International Bulk Mail

The following changes to our Bulk Mail products will take effect on 1 July 2024:

  • Price increases will be applied to all Bulk Mail services.  The increases will vary across the rate cards, with most customers expected to receive an average increase of around 25% to 30%.

Bulk Mail Rate Card

New pricing will be introduced for all Bulk Mail products. Please refer to the International Bulk Mail Rate Card (PDF - 60KB) for pricing. New prices will apply from 1 July 2024.

Envelope Layout Standards

There are no changes to the Domestic and International Inbound Bulk Mail Envelope Layout Standards. For full details of the revised product specifications in the Domestic and International Inbound Bulk Mail Envelope Layout Standards, refer to our Envelope Layout Standards (PDF - 4.5MB).

Bulk Mail chart

There are no changes to the Bulk Mail Chart, which will be published prior to 1 July 2024. For full details of the Bulk Mail Chart refer to Bulk Mail Desk Chart (PDF - 60KB)

Zonal Pricing

Zonal Pricing is a pricing structure that applies to all Bulk Mail products and charges different prices for mail deliveries to different areas.

Every New Zealand postcode containing delivery points has been allocated to one of four “Zones”; Zone A, Zone B, Zone C and Zone D. Each of these zones has a different price. 

In addition to the above Zonal Pricing, a separate pricing tier applies to any items with incorrect or missing postcodes. This pricing tier is called IPC (Invalid Postcode). More information on Zonal Pricing and IPC terms and conditions is available under the AdCard, FlexiMail, Publication Mail and VolumeMail sections in the Postal Users' Guide.

NZ Post Bulk Mail Zones

NZ Post Bulk Mail Zones (XLS - 100KB)*

Bulk mail zones are defined by postcode. They are defined for the purpose of determining prices for bulk mail lodged as AdCard, FlexiMail, Publication Mail and VolumeMail.

*The NZ Post Bulk Mail Zones list provides details of the postcode zone and delivery type for all valid postcodes in NZ.

Note: There are 3 listed postcodes that have no zonal mapping as they have no physical mail delivery points, i.e. all mail sent to those postcodes should be addressed to the PO Box Lobby within the postcode. These are highlighted in yellow in the PDF. 

If you wish to obtain a csv version of the Zonal Postcode list, please contact [email protected] 

For more information on Bulk Mail Zonal Pricing, please refer to the International Commercial Postal Users’ Guide.

Zonal Pricing Rates

Zonal Pricing rates across AdCard, FlexiMail, publication Mail and VolumeMail can be found on the International Bulk Mail Rate Card.

Billing

Your statements will provide a breakdown of how many pieces of mail are sent to each zone for every lodgement and the associated price. 

For any billing enquiries, please contact your mailhouse or NZ Post Business Manager.

See our questions and answers for more information.