Postal rate changes will contribute to protecting mail as a valued service for all New Zealanders

The price of sending a standard letter within New Zealand will increase 10 cents to $1.30 from 1 July 2019, to better reflect the true cost of sending a letter.

New Zealand Post General Manager Mail Matt Geor says NZ Post delivers over 400 million mail items a year, but the number of letters sent continues to drop at a significant rate.

“We need to make the price change to help cover the cost of delivering letters and to ensure we can sustain the current postal service for those who are using it,” says Mr Geor.

“New Zealand currently has one of the highest rates of decline in the world, as people choose to communicate more online. Only around one percent of mail sent in New Zealand is made up of personal letters, the rest is business mail.

“We continue to work hard to keep the cost of posting mail as low as possible, by significantly reducing our network costs and making big changes to how we operate. However, with an annual decline of approximately 60 million mail items through our network, we also need to increase the price of postage.

“We acknowledge the significance of these changes for our customers. We want to reassure them we are working very hard to ensure our mail business is fit for the future, and that the changes will not affect our delivery service.”

As part of maintaining a viable postal service for New Zealand, NZ Post has also reviewed the prices we charge our largest business sending customers, for large volumes of mail sent in bulk. More details are available on the New Zealand Post website at www.nzpost.co.nz/july2019.