Heather du Plessis-Allan: I'm with NZ Post - Stop delivering to letterboxes

It looks like NZ Post might finally pull a trigger they haven’t pulled yet and stop delivering mail to some letterboxes. 

It's kind of been on the cards for some time, but up until now the proposal has mostly been to not deliver to new houses. 

Now, what they're talking about is not delivering to existing houses, houses that already have letterboxes and have been getting mail in them for years. 

So, no more mail. Instead it will be replaced with clusters of boxes where we have to go get our mail. 

According to the plan they would cut out 5% of letterboxes every year, so presumably within 20 years it’s all done and we have no more mail arriving in any letterboxes. 

Look, I’m surprised. 

I'm pleasantly surprised they are prepared to be as bold as this, because this has got to be done. 

Letters are a luxury that cost us a lot of money. 

This is what we have to understand. It’s not free. 

NZ Post lost $14m in the last financial year and it lost $56m the year before. 

That’s money the taxpayer could be spending on something more worthwhile. 

Most things you can get on email now, things like your power bill, water bill and rates bill. 

Some things still come in the mail, like credits cards and the registration for your car. But that can be switched to courier, and sometimes already are. 

I get that there are communities that will be hit harder than others if the mail stops arriving, especially the elderly and rural communities. 

But frankly it’ll be a schlep for everyone to have to wander down to the cluster letterbox in town to retrieve the mail items. But at least we’ll all be in it together. 

The writing has been on the wall for ages. 

The trend on letters has only been in one direction. It’s not a surprise it’s coming to this. 

It’s just a pleasant surprise NZ Post has got the courage to actually start doing it. 

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