APR 2007 - INDUSTRY NEWS: Domestic Postal Rates to Change in June
Over the past ten years New Zealand Post has faced significantly increased business costs and this, along with growth in the number of delivery addresses (120,000 or 7% more places now than this time in 2004) has resulted in a review of postal rates.
Inflation alone has increased by 8.3% since March 2004. A number of costs have gone up, most notably the labour costs for the Postal Services operations area which have increased 10.8% since 2004. Labour accounts for around 40% of the cost of processing and delivering mail.
New Zealand Post has a world-class delivery performance with 95.9% of mail delivered on-time (within our service standards).
To cover costs and ensure high service standards is retained New Zealand Post will be increasing its domestic postal rates from the 1st of June 2007.
For standard letters the move from 45 cents to 50 cents represents an 11 per cent increase.
The last increase in the stamp price was over three years ago in April 2004. Prior to that the price had not increased for 13 years (in fact it went down 5 cents in 1995).
• $0.40 to $0.45 (July 1991)
• $0.45 to $0.40 (October 1995)
• $0.40 to $0.45 (April 2004)
Even at 50 cents it costs less to send a standard letter in New Zealand than it does in Australia, Britain, Canada and the majority of other OECD countries. By comparison, Australian’s standard postage rate is the equivalent of 56 cents in New Zealand currency. In New Zealand currency the UK charges 65 cents; Canada 67 cents; Germany 85 cents; Ireland 90 cents; and at the high end of the scale, Norway’s standard postage rate is $1.40.*
*Currency conversion as at 23 March 2007.
Summary of what is NOT changing
For our valued advertisers using VolumePost products there is no change. Neither will there be any change to International mail, Go Flexi, PrintPost (bulk mail), Domestic packet and parcel rates, Plastic Postage Included Envelopes or Courier Rates.
For those who may not be currently using VolumePost it is a very cost-effective way to post large amounts of mail to destinations throughout New Zealand. It’s ideal for invoices, statements, company announcements and promotions – anything that meets our requirements for machine processing.
There are two levels of VolumePost:
* VolumePost 1 – for 1,000 items or more.
* VolumePost 3 – for 300 items or more. It has slightly different preparation requirements from VolumePost 1.
For more information on VolumePost visit the New Zealand Post website
Summary of what IS changing
The price increase affects domestic letters only in both medium and extra large sized envelopes. All prices listed below include GST.
Standard Post
Standard Post medium from 45c to 50c
Standard Post extra large from 90c to $1.00
FastPost
FastPost medium from 90c to $1.00
FastPost extra large from $1.35 to $1.50
FreePost
FreePost medium – Approved format from 40c to 45c
FreePost medium – Unapproved format from 45c to 50c
FreePost extra large from 90c to $1.00
You will be able to purchase the new stamps from 9 May 2007. Seven new Definitive stamps will be issued for the following denominations: 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, $1.00, $2.50 and $3.00. Note: There is also a special issue of stamps on 24 April which includes the new denominations.
From 1 June 2007 you will need to add a five cent stamp next to any current stocks of 45 cent stamps to make up the difference.
A full list of all products affected by the new postage rates can be found on the New Zealand Post website www.nzpost.co.nz or you can ring our freephone number 0800 501 501 for more information.
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